Posted on 11/22/2006 5:27:30 AM PST by kellynla
The question of whether we need a universal military draft will be important as long as this country is placing thousands of young men and women in harm's way in Iraq. As long as Americans are being shipped off to war, then everyone should be vulnerable, not just those who, because of economic circumstances, are attracted by lucrative enlistment bonuses and educational incentives. Even before the first bomb was dropped, before the first American casualty, I have opposed the war in Iraq. I continue to believe that decision-makers would never have supported the invasion if more of them had family members in line for deployment.
Those who do the fighting have no choice; when the flag goes up, they salute and follow orders. So far, more than 2,800 have died and 21,000 have been wounded. They are our unrecognized American heroes.
The great majority of people bearing arms for this country in Iraq are from the poorer communities in our inner cities and rural areas, places where enlistment bonuses are up to $40,000 and thousands in educational benefits are very attractive. For people who have college as an option, those incentives - at the risk to one's life - don't mean a thing.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Rich people can always evade the draft. For example, with enough money, you can pay someone who has a bad back and has approximately the same build as you, to pretend to be you and get an X-Ray. Then, you take the X-Ray, which has your name on it, to your draft board and get a medical deferment.
If you have further questions about how to pull this off, call Howard Dean.
We plebes are incapable of deciding what is best for ourselves. We need the help of the RATS. I think Charlie wants to send any kid who has anything and then take what they have away. That will teach us scum. Giving someone something for nothing has always worked to lift people to their greatest potential.
"The great majority of people bearing arms for this country in Iraq are from the poorer communities in our inner cities and rural areas"
Is this statement of his true?
I going to make a stereotypical statement here, but aren't most intercity poor on wedlfare? They probably collect more money than the military and it's more dangerous in the inner city.
That logic worked well for the Vietnam War, Charlie.
Remind me never to eat Thanksgiving Dinner at your house!
As Rush has explained this pretty well, Mr. Rangel wants a nation who hates the military, and will not be able to support war. The calling of this draft by Charlie is just a stunt to create anti-war sentiment.
In this day and age, college or even trade school is an option for ANYONE who stays in school and works hard. Seems Rangel, like Kerry, is implying that minorities from poor neighborhoods are too stupid to further their education and that's just plain wrong.
Charlie, have you EVER checked out the parking lots of the dormitories on base? Let me let you in on a little secret. Being in the military does not deny one the ability or privilege of driving. One of the FIRST things a new Airman usually purchases (along with a cell phone, TV, VCR/DVD, stereo, etc) is a CAR. You've obviously never eaten in a military dining facility, either, if you think it takes getting 18-to-26 year-olds in the military off the road to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Look at the source for that post: http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2407 .
What's the main difference between a small volunteer military and a large conscript one?
A smaller volunteer force will, pound for pound, be more effective, highly trained and dangerous.
It will also be politically, socially, and culturally isolated from many segments of the society it is built to protect. There are now multi-generational military families. Almost a caste system, and not just of officers but of enlisted men. The military has never been so isolated from the people, and living in it's own world.
For a long time, I figured that was a fair trade, since fielding a winning force was of paramount importance. Now I'm starting to see what some people see in the draft. It puts a much larger segment of the U.S. into the fight. There's a danger in having a military that the people don't identify with. George Washington, among others, were against the idea of professional armies. In our case, the problem isn't a tyranny of the military, but a tyranny of pacifism that doesn't understand what their military is about.
What we gain in combat power by having select volunteers, we can't use, for lack of overall national will. There's no national will, because there's no personal identification with the fight or the fighters. A draft may make it harder to start wars, but it'll make it easier to win the ones we're in.
BULL$#!^.
Now, his real reasons:
1. I intend to interfere with the executive branch's prerogatives.
2. I want to instigate civil disorders.
3. I have an agenda that calls for national divisiveness.
3a. Specifically, I hate Whitey.
Ditto, although my usual respone includes "NO!, NO!, and HELL NO!"
No. The simple fact is that it is NOT true.
Even when upper-class youths did go to the front (enforced more by social mores than government force -- as you correctly point out, the people in power will never really be effectively subjected to the latter), nations willingly marched into the meat grinder (World War One is a textbook example: a "war of choice" that could have easily been avoided if multi-digit IQs and multi-second attention spans had been in charge. It butchered an entire generation across all economic and social lines.)
Nonsense. Nixon correctly got rid of the draft because he needed to replace inefficient institutions with efficient ones if there was to be any hope of victory before his political problems (i.e. Watergate) finished him. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.
Don't give this racist poltroon credit for anything other than for being a racist poltroon.
BTW, we already have "broad-based national service" -- it's called GETTING A JOB.
Apologies to all! Everything was aimed at Mr. Rangel. His "military draft" proposal is a particular pet peeve of mine that gets the typing trigger fingers twitching.
I would love to just slap the blowhard. My brother also fought in Afghanistan, years after he finished college. He also took a pay cut for a year. A young man I know, QUIT college after 2 years to join the Marines. He already had the scholarships to go to school. Not to mention my cousins, and various other people I know who were military, all college grads. And not for nothing, but we are all white middle class, not poor, illiterate and uneducated. I am so sick and tired of this man insulting all military by spouting this crap. These are grown men and women, who make a choice of their own free will to join the military. This man has no concept of duty, honor or bravery. I really wish we had term limits since the American population can't seem to get rid of these jackasses.
I suspect this is why we will never see another draft anytime soon in this country. It's much easier to pursue such idiocy as a matter of public policy when the number of people directly -- and clearly -- affected by it is statistically small.
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