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JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With Senator John McCain leading the charge for more U.S. troops in Iraq...

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Are we winning? And I think the answer is no.

MCINTYRE: ... Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel is renewing his call for a return to the draft.

REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: Having our young people commit themselves to a couple years in service of this great republic, whether it's our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals -- and, at the end of that, to provide some educational benefits -- it's the best thing for our young people and the best thing for our country.

MCINTYRE: While U.S. commanders insist sending more American troops is not the answer, they concede they really couldn't maintain a much bigger force in Iraq than the 150,000 there now. The U.S. military is simply too small.

GENERAL JOHN ABIZAID, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: When you look at the overall American force pool that's available out there, the ability to sustain -- sustain that commitment is simply not something that we have right now with the size of the Army and the Marine Corps.

MCINTYRE: There are some 1.4 million active-duty troops in the U.S. military, but less than half, roughly 500,000, are ground troops. And, of that, four-fifths, about 390,000, are either deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, returning home, or getting ready to go back.

But the Pentagon, the administration, most members of Congress, and virtually all U.S. commanders agree, a return to forced conscription would be expensive, unnecessary, and would undermine the all-volunteer force that's been performing superbly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FACE THE NATION")

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: We just need to get more people to join, better benefits, better pay. I think we can do this with an all-voluntary service, all-voluntary Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But...

GRAHAM: And, if we can't, then we will look for some other option.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: Congressman Charles Rangel originally said he planned to introduce legislation to revive the draft when he takes over as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee next year. He's now backpedaled a bit, but still says he would like to have hearings on the subject to show that he thinks the current system is unfair.

But no one at the Pentagon -- or on Capitol Hill, for that matter -- gives the legislation much of a chance for passage -- Paula.

ZAHN: Jamie, thanks so much for the update. Now, despite that chorus of criticism that seems to be coming from all corners, Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel isn't backing down. And I spoke with him just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: How disappointed are you that the newly elected Democratic leadership won't touch your draft issue?

RANGEL: I don't blame them. Talking about the draft is a very dangerous thing politically.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: What's so dangerous? What's the risk?

RANGEL: The risk is that you're talking about putting kids, American kids, in harm's way that come from affluent voting families. And they don't like that idea.

But I think it's more important that people who keep talking about sending more troops to Iraq, putting military options on the table in Iran and in North Korea, have to understand that other kids, other people's kids, are fighting these wars. And, so, I think it's very important, when our military chief in Iraq says that you may want more troops there; I don't think we need them, but we don't have think anyway.

And I know where these young people are coming from, and I think we have exhausted our National Guard, exhausting our reserve. And we ought to pause, take a deep breath, and see whether we're prepared for everyone, universally, men and women, to share in this sacrifice.

ZAHN: You obviously believe a draft is necessary if we potentially will enter a military conflict in -- in Iran, and maybe even North Korea.

When you say you don't blame the Democratic leadership, don't you wish they had more backbone on this one?

RANGEL: I don't care what the leadership does. The American people voted in the midterm election. They either don't know why we're in Iraq, but they certainly want us to get out of Iraq.

You have never heard the president of the United States make a patriotic appeal for all Americans to volunteer to stop terrorism from coming from Iraq to the United States. And we all know that the people that are enlisting are enlisting because they don't have better options.

If that wasn't so, the military would not be spending $4 billion setting up recruiting stations in the areas of the highest unemployment, offering up to $40,000 to enlist, and, in addition to that, $70,000 in education, and upping the age, since they couldn't get enough recruits, from 26 to 39. So, we know what's going on. Is it difficult to talk about? Is it awkward? Yes. It doesn't take away from the patriotism of those that are fighting. But, if the war is worth fighting, what's the objection for everyone making a sacrifice?

ZAHN: But isn't it disingenuous for you to say that you don't care what the House leadership does, when, in fact, you need them if there's ever going to be a vote on this issue?

RANGEL: I don't -- forget the vote. Before you get to the vote, we have to have the debate; we have to have the hearings; we have to have full discussion. And that's good enough for me. It could very well be, at the end of the day, the wars are over, they don't need all of these people, and so we don't need a draft.

And, then, I would talk about national military service, which is another subject good for another time.

ZAHN: Thank you for setting the record straight here tonight.

Charles Rangel, appreciate it.

RANGEL: Thank you so much, Paula.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: My pleasure.

The current chairman of the House Armed Services Committee made a point of going public against Congressman Rangel's draft proposal today.

And, a little bit earlier, I spoke with Republican Duncan Hunter of California, who also happens to be exploring the idea of running for president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And Representative Duncan Hunter joins us.

Always good to see you, sir. Thanks so much for being with us.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Good to be with you.

ZAHN: Why are you so opposed to Congressman Rangel's idea to bring back the draft?

HUNTER: Well, first, Paula, I am opposed to the premise upon which he bases this idea.

And I have -- I have heard Charlie. I like him. He was an old 2nd Division man from Korea.

But his argument is to the effect that -- that only people go to war who have to go. And I can tell you that, after 9/11, I came back to San Diego, to my hometown, and I -- and I had a son who was in the high-tech industry, good job, wife and baby, and I saw him running up the mountainside. I said, what are you doing?

He said: I quit my job. I'm joining the Marines. We're going to go get them.

And -- and he did, subsequently, two tours in Iraq as a Marine officer.

Secondly, the voluntary military is working. I just looked at all the statistics. And the combat units, the people that go into combat -- and you would think, if anyone was -- that did -- would not want to reenlist, it would be the guys in combat. They're reenlisting. And we're meeting more than 100 percent of our goals for reenlistments. And we're meeting enlistment goals across the board.

ZAHN: That may be true, but a lot of people think that misses the point. Even General Abizaid, who's in charge of the operations in Iraq, has said, if you brought in 20,000 more troops now, you simply can't sustain that. The -- the Army is too small and has been too weakened.

HUNTER: Well, here's what we have done, Paula.

When the Clintons walked out of the White House, they cut the U.S. Army from what was 18 divisions to 10, cut it almost in half. We have increased the Army now by 30,000 troops. Now, in Iraq, it's true that we need new troops. We need more troops in Baghdad.

And I have got an answer for that. We have got 114 Iraqi battalions that we have trained and equipped that are in Iraq. Twenty-seven of them are in places where there's no fighting to speak of going on. We need to take those Iraqis that we have trained and equipped that -- who have weapons, have communications gear. We need to saddle them up and move them into Baghdad. That will mature them as a fighting force.

That will help them. It will help the Iraqi people. And it speeds up the time when America can leave.

ZAHN: We have heard your chief objections to reinstating the draft. And I know you feel very passionately about this. But how much does politics enter into this? Are you afraid that no one wants to take this issue on because of all the pain that it causes?

HUNTER: No, listen, I'm just an American who saw my dad volunteer in World War II. He had a deferment. He volunteered. I didn't do anything special in Vietnam, but I -- I showed up as a volunteer.

And my son volunteered for this Iraqi -- for this war in Iraq and -- and the war against terror. And I think that is the principal ethic that moves Americans. That's the ethic of patriotism and volunteerism.

It doesn't make sense, Paula -- if you have a volunteer who is willing to take a position and wants to take a position and volunteers or re-ups or enlists in the military, it doesn't make sense to push him out of the way, and put in somebody who didn't volunteer, who would rather be doing something else.

ZAHN: Representative Duncan Hunter, thanks for your time tonight. We really appreciate it.

HUNTER: Hey, thank you.

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