Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061119/ap_on_go_co/military_draft
WASHINGTON – Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 under a bill the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he will introduce next year.
Rep. Charles Rangel D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars.
“There’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm’s way,” Rangel said.Rangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, has said the all-volunteer military disproportionately puts the burden of war on minorities and lower-income families.
Graham said he believes the all-voluntary military “represents the country pretty well in terms of ethnic makeup, economic background.”
Repeated polls have shown that about seven in 10 Americans oppose reinstatement of the draft and officials say they do not expect to restart conscription.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in June 2005 that “there isn’t a chance in the world that the draft will be brought back.”
Yet the prospect of the long global fight against terrorism and the continuing U.S. commitment to stabilizing Iraq have kept the idea in the public mind.
The military drafted conscripts during the Civil War, both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. An agency independent of the Defense Department, the Selective Service System, keeps an updated registry of men age 18-25 — now about 16 million — from which to supply untrained draftees that would supplement the professional all-volunteer armed forces. Rangel and Graham appeared on “Face the Nation” on CBS.
Once again this complete airheaded nimrod attempts to conscript the same poor and minorities that he says (contrary to the facts) are already over-represented in the military. He did this in 2005 (SF Gate Diggers Realm – The 2004 Military Draft Bill failed thankfully 402 to 2, only Democrats John “Cut and Run” Murtha and Rep. Pete Stark of Fremont, Calif. voted in favor of a draft.)
The best thing to do when someone is about to hang them self is to give them more rope. The Republicans should parade around Chuck Rangel and explain to the American people that a military draft system is an inefficient way to fight a war. Exhibit A: John Kerry and his despicable conduct during the Vietnam War.
Sorry Charlie, you’ll have to try this again in 2007 and 2008, and 2009, and maybe one day you’ll be able to proudly force more poor and minority young men and women to their death, just because there’s a mere chance that some rich white man’s kid might die. You sure are a twisted and depraved “man”, Charlie Rangel and I sure hope your constituents finally vote you out one day (tho Gerrymandering sure is a great thing for you, isn’t it?) once they realise how racist and sick you really are.
