Bring back the draft, and raise the age to 20 or 21.
We had a guest speaker at our monthly political salon who is on a mission to keep teenagers from killing themselves drinking. This question came up, as she said it always does:
Why should young people be allowed to die in war for this country and still not be old enough to drink?
I think that's a great question and offer this constitutional amendment: The age at which one may enter the military shall never be lower than the age at which one may drink legally.
And speaking of military service, the Washington Post reports that Charlie Rangel will be pushing for a return to the draft in the next session of Congress. It'll be fascinating to watch the Party of Greed chickenhawks running for cover.
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) will be has long advocated a return to the draft, but his efforts drew little attention during the 12 years that House Democrats were in the minority. Starting in January, however, he will chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Today he said "you bet your life" he will renew his drive for a draft.
"I will be introducing that bill as soon as we start the new session," Rangel said on CBS's "Face the Nation." He portrayed the draft, suspended since 1973, as a means of spreading military obligations more equitably and prompting political leaders to think twice before starting 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," said Rangel, a Korean War veteran. "If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft."
So yeah. Bring back the draft. Maybe even universal service. I'm all for it. No exemptions. No excuses.
Comments
They are so young.
And they are being slaughtered for nothing.
I'd be for it as well, even though I didn't serve.
I think it would do a lot for the US if people had to do some kind of service. I read an interesting student op-ed in the Duke paper about student drinking last week. You should look it up, it was by a student basically saying "We are the only ones who can stop this."
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
I'm all for it too
The question is how to do it with "equal opportunity" for all including the rich and politically connected.
Stan Bozarth
Put me in the strongly against it column.
My son is 17. Call me selfish. I don't care. I'm against it.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Ghandi
The downside.
having your "turn" come up when a psychopath is running the country. Given that I have two kids, consider me undecided, now.
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
I know how you feel.
My daughter is 16.
And I guarantee that BOTH of us - and twenty million other parents - would have been raising holy hell against King George's war if there had been a draft in place. Simply put, this war would have never happened.
Fully understand
After my experiences in Vietnam I swore that if my children were of draft age and another nut case took us to an unjustified war I would move out of the country... The bigger picture is, as Anglico says, we likely wouldn't be at war if the Exxon CEO's kids were going to be shot at, or heaven forbid, some Senator's kids or grandkids were to be at risk. There are clearly lots of reasons one can argue for and against the draft. In the proper circumstance, as existed in WWII, the most compelling reason is that freedom is not free.
Stan Bozarth
You are both right of course.
Perhaps there would be "less" war everywhere is the militaries were made up entirely of the sons & daughters of power.
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Stan...
Thank you for your service - I grew up watching Viet Nam on TV. I was young, but not too young to know that no child of mine would ever go through what I saw on TV. That doesn't stop me from appreciating the men and women who served (and continue to serve) our country - even when I see no earthly reason for them to have to sacrifice their lives.
Does anyone else remember the Viet Nam era TV commercial that showed two old white men fighting on a beach? The implication was that if world leaders wanted to fight, let them fight, and leave the young people of the world alone. That's pretty much how I feel.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Ghandi
You don't put out a fire by dumping gasoline on it...
The rich and connected have always been able to duck the draft - so it's no disincentive to those at the top fomenting war. If there's one thing finally getting through to the most hawkish of Republicans, it's that our troops have been ground down, the materials of war exhausted, the public's stomach for death and destruction gone.
Rangel's proposal will only extend the war.
Like Lance, I grew up during Viet Nam - by the mid-60's fully expecting to be drafted when I came of age in the early '70's. I missed out by just a few years.
Sans a consuming threat to our country, I'll join with Lance, et. al. against the draft.
BTW, the greatest threat to my liberties has come from within, not without...
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
I don't think about this in the context of Iraq
Iraq is lost, that much is clear. And though the Party of Torture stunt of adding 20,000 troops or whatever may happen (I pray it doesn't), there will not be a wholesale rededication to this war, in my opinion.
I see the draft as a social justice issue, and not just for military service. I'm thinking of broader national service. The growing class divide will not be remediated by free-market wishful thinking.
Finally, a draft wouldn't throw gasoline on any fire. It would have the opposite effect. It would stop the setting of fires in the first instance.
I had a coursemate from Switzerland (I think, so long ago)
What I remember is that he was one of the first to be allowed to do "national service" that was not tied to the military. He served as a social worker in an abused children's home run by the state.
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
AGAINST, AGAINST, AGAINST
and incase that's not clear enough, I"M AGAINST THE DRAFT! Hubby served in Vietnam in the final days, evacuating Siagon. I served during Vietnam. We were both AF but still understand that as "grunts" we were expendable. Fools and power mongers are generally put in charge of the enlisted and with the fools still in charge that started this invasion, I just don't think that kids will have it any better today. After this war is over, and Bush is out of the WH AND if there was some law, much like Isreal where everyone is REQUIRED to serve, regardless of daddy's position, THen I'd be for the draft. Right now, a draft would be nothing more than the government's way of getting rid of the poor!
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
This would be a requirement, of course.
much like Israel where everyone is REQUIRED to serve, regardless of daddy's position, then I'd be for the draft.
I'm for national service, not necessarily a draft
I believe that there should be a minimum two year national service (Peace Corps, USACorps, etc or military) for all Americans between the ages of 18 and 24.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to make such a program fair (just as there's no way to make a draft fair) across all classes.
Thomas S. Brock
www.brocknet.net
www.brocknet.net/WordPress/
OnslowCountyPolitics@gmail.com
http://onslowcountypolitics.brocknet.net
Thomas
What have YOU done today to make the world a better place?
Yeah.
If you make it national service, then the Bush bots will end up serving in the Peace Corps on the beaches of Grenada. I say that because I know someone who reupped for 8 years doing just that. Surfing and working in a health clinic on the beaches of Grenada. Meanwhile, the son of Crenshaw that has barely a high-school education will not be offered Peace Corps or AmeriCorp and will end up in????
The infantry.
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
I'm certain that...
the Bushbots won't be in control forever...
Thomas S. Brock
www.brocknet.net
www.brocknet.net/WordPress/
OnslowCountyPolitics@gmail.com
http://onslowcountypolitics.brocknet.net
Thomas
What have YOU done today to make the world a better place?
I don't think the draft is an equalizer...
It never has been.
Look at all the rich white kids who were of draft age who never had to set foot in Southeast Asia. The way our society is set up, I think they'll always find a way around it.
Manadatory National Service - I could go for that. Include teaching as national service, and I could really go for that.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Ghandi
Teaching is certainly a national service
And the draft was never executed as an equalizer. If it were structured and executed properly, then it could become one.
Thomas S. Brock
www.brocknet.net
www.brocknet.net/WordPress/
OnslowCountyPolitics@gmail.com
http://onslowcountypolitics.brocknet.net
Thomas
What have YOU done today to make the world a better place?
National Service as Debt Repayment
The more I look at this, the more I am against it unless it works out in two ways.
1. National service is available to everyone as a means of paying for college - no military association, just equal to the college payoff.
2. A national draft that excludes no one, not even for medical reasons except extreme physical or mental incapacity.
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
To serve or not to serve, that is the question....
Compulsory, universal service - whether doling out bullets or doling out soup - is an anathema to liberty.
I'll dispense with arguments centered on how pervasive iniquities in the population - social standing, education, etc. - will distort the patterns of service within any "universal" model and, instead, focus on the core problem - either our government is supreme over the people or it is not.
I believe you have the innate right to reject government compelled servitude - as affirmed by the 13th - whatever the cause - fair or foul.
This is part of the contract.
I'm not the only lout to think so:
We often honor and celebrate "those who wait", for we acknowledge they "who stand and wait also serve". The social fabric that supports those performing service on our country's behalf, our behalf - militarily or in the Peace Corps or VISTA or any of the myriad of government services - is cherished.
No so the dissenter.
Vilified, punished, sometimes worse - those that reject the dictate of government service also "serve in their own way".
Whatever their reasons - principled or otherwise - we need to protect the inherent right to spit in society's eye - to refuse service even in "the best of causes". For within their dissent, in maybe the meanest of fashions, a war is waged against the vile ethic of authoritarianism that seems to have permeated, to recent deleterious extent, our culture.
Yeah, not a politically "safe" cause to fight for - so be it.
Hey, don't worry, when it's time "to repel invasions, suppress insurrections, or execute the laws" I'll be right there with you...
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
Job Opening for Humanitarians Medical Workers in the SS?
Where is it written in the Constitution,* Will
Nowhere! The founders were well aware of National Service by force. All known Kings and tyrants in ancient and modern history have always force it citizens to submit to the will of State Service in order to take away your personal individual liberties of life. liberty and property.
If you believe that peaceful state service is your game. You would have a been a Iron Cross paramedic in Hilter elite SS corp service whose State duty was to tend their wounded and not those, who were declare as Enemies of the State.
Hell no Charlie! We won't go! Get use to it if you want to be the village idiot of the Democrat Neo-Con War Party faction.
.....
what?
CountryCrats - my thoughts, my blog.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Flatland?
"Get use to it if you want to be the village idiot of the Democrat Neo-Con War Party faction."
Max, did I step on a non sequitor mine? You're supporting what I said, right?
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
CitizenWill
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. MLK,Jr. to SCLC Leadership Class
Excellent Will
You really made me think.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Ghandi