Feel a Draft?

22 November 2006



Rangel Wants Conscription

The Democratic Congressman from Harlem, New York, Charles Rangel has suggested that the US reinstate the draft. This isn’t the first time he has advanced this proposal. And as a veteran of the Korean War, he doesn’t have a history of draft dodging to defend. Although there are some advantages to having universal national service, this isn’t the best idea in Washington.

Mr. Rangel’s biggest complaint about the all-volunteer army is the disproportionate number of poor and minorities in the military. Quite simply, the richer kids have more options. This means that the children of the poor are more often than not the troops who get sent into combat, and consequently, the poor wind up dying for their country. Since one class of Americans decide whether to go to war (there are a lot of millionaires in Congress) while another class actually fights it, he fears that the nation goes to war too readily.

On that score, he is most certainly right. It is much easier to send other people’s children to die for a cause. In World War I, the death toll among the Scottish and Irish units of the British Army tended to have much higher casualty rates than English units. Most of the general staff were English, and it seemed to them that the Jocks and the Micks could do the dying for King and Country.

However, by forcing citizens into the military, or into any form of national service, one undermines the very nature of America. As has become apparent in recent years, it is impossible to fight a war without the support of the people. By definition, any time the military cannot muster sufficient forces to fight a war using only volunteers, that war shouldn’t be fought. The people don’t support it.

That said, if Mr. Rangel really wants to be ideologically pure, he should take his proposal even farther. Every American who is physically able should have to serve 1 year in the military or 2 years in civilian service. Those who haven’t yet served, regardless of age, gender or sexual orientation, must serve within the next twelve months. Members of congress, the cabinet or the civil service who haven’t served must resign and serve. Fifty-year-old CEOS and 18-year-old high school grads are equally required to serve. And anyone who can’t prove he served the full hitch in the Alabama National Guard in the 1970s has to resign his office and re-enlist. On further consideration, maybe Private George Bush and Corporal Dick Cheney would do less harm to the world than they have done as President and Vice President these last 6 years.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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