[dirtboy]

Are you quite sure you wish to score a meager political point by comparing military service to slavery?

[pabianice]

Someone send this moron a copy of "Starship Troopers..."

[Tacis]

Reinstating the draft would be a great idea. A year (maybe, 9 months, maybe 18) of mandatory military service for all males and females would be a very good thing and would help integrate many foreigners (not illegals) into the American mainstream.

The unfortunate thing, here, is that Rangel does not belive this and would oppose it vigorously. This was one of those trial baloons to make him ( and the anti-American lefties) look like they are out front with Bush on defending America. Rangel is a black race pimp and would only be interested in universal military service if blacks were segregated into locations where he and the other race pimps could propagandize them against whitey.

[ex-snook]

If all the war hawks enlisted, (demonstrating that they are not in the long line of chicken hawks), there would be no need for a draft. After all, there are a lot of hawks around and they want to take on Iraq, Iran, NK, Syria, China, etc. I'm sure they will walk the talk. Right.

[steve50]

Even with a draft the perfumed princes won't get within a 1,000 mile of a shot fired in anger. If they don't get enough volunteers let them raise the pay, freedom isn't free afterall.

[latrans]

Rangle is simply attacking the policy by using a scare tactic.

[mhking]

Compulsory military service equaling "youth slavery"? Oh, please.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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[Fee]

Rangel is an idiot. If we have a draft Army, the military will have a huge pool of cheap labor. Military pay will stagnate or go down. Blacks and Hispanics have benefited from a higher paying volunteer force. It represents a rung in the economic ladder for them to climb upwards. They will be the first to pay economically from Rangel's policy. Many of the inner city minority recruits barely meet the academic standards. Since they are the ones willing to serve, the military has invested in training programs to upgrade their academic skills such as reading and math. The volunteer military has helped many minorities to improve their skills so they can be considered for higher ranks and other advanced training. In other words it has provided them with opportunities not available in a draft force where the military has a large low cost pool to draw talent and leaders from. The first to get hurt under Rangel's policy will be his own constituents.

[j_tull]

At least everyone would learn to use a firearm!

[tlrugit]

Drivel, and singularly idiotic drivel at that.

I suppose if tell my son or daughter to wash the dishes that too would count as childhood slavery. Certainly to be totally PC we would never call it service to the family. So in like manner service to the community and the nation. Some seem to forget that service is not the option of choice for the desperate and disposessed, but the preferred choice of pride for the responsible and the strong.

I volunteered for the Navy and served my four years, some of it Vietnam combat, because I knew that I owed much to the extent (and beyond) that I had received much, and wished to repay that, enabling others to receive in turn. A sense of duty to the society that nurtures us will inevitably keep that society strong; a sense of entitlement can only weaken it.

[farmfriend]

Don't they have mandatory service in Israel? Probably closer to the Starship Trooper analogy. Service means citizenship.

[Eva]

While some of what you are saying is true, you miss the point of Rangel's call for a draft. Rangel is opposed to the war in Iraq or on terrorism for that matter, and he longs for the days when anti-war demonstrations on college campuses were an everyday occurrence. He sees the draft as the ultimate tool to divide the country against itself, the young against the middle aged, the poor against the rich and the weak against the strong.

Rangel longs for the time when Liberals could claim some moral authority and actually had a cause to stand behind.
Rangel thinks that he can get away with calling for the draft on racial issues, saying that it is only fair and then he will turn around and say, but we shouldn't need the draft because we shouldn't be at war in the first place.

Ignore Rangel, don't even give him a platform to stand on, his statements are totally disingenuous.

[taxcontrol]

Counter proposal:

Instead of a draft, put some training behind the Selective Service. 1 day per year during the birth month for 4 years, teach call up procedures, keep the admin and physical records up to date. Train in first aid, marching, weapon (M16) familuarity, range saftey and let them fire 10 rounds. Pay above minimum wage for the one day.

Call it the Inactive Reserves. After the 4 years, go back to the way it is now by just keeping track of where the folks are.

[M Kehoe]

And the arguement continues.

5.56mm

[ZULU]

That idiot Rangel could only get elected in a district like Harlem where the mass of the voters are poor, ignorant, and suffer from congenital DemocRATism.

[Political Junkie Too]

"I believe that if those calling for war knew that their children were likely to be required to serve--and to be placed in harm's way--there would be more caution and a greater willingness to work with the international community in dealing with Iraq."

I think that this is Rangel's main goal: he wants to reinstitute the draft in order to influence the vote of his colleagues in Congress. It's really a Congressional power-play, using the youth of America as pawns.

-PJ