1 | Jennifer

November 21st, 2006 at 5:45 am

Rangel’s point is that if there were a draft and people were worried that they might actually have to fight in this war, or that their children would, they would be less apt to just follow along blindly as Bush (or any President) gets the country into a mess like this. People may be getting disillusioned now, but look how bad it had to get before people started even really paying attention…

Anyway, I don’t agree that we should bring back the draft, and I’m a little miffed at Chuck Rangle for even bringing it up at a time when the public is finally disposed to start looking for a solution to this mess. But, I do understand the logic he is using, and I share his frustration that there are so many people who were gung-ho for this war … as long as somebody else has to fight it.

2 | bigstarlet

November 21st, 2006 at 6:49 am

Thanks for all of that.
I think once people get past the shock and awe of Rangel’s initial proposal, the point of this war’s harsh reality comes across. How one interprets that point varies between persons, of course.
And it’s always easy to have someone else fight your war - Bush Jr. got out of going to Vietnam. We’ve outsourced our torture work to other countries who’s Constitution/Bill of Rights doesn’t limit this sort of thing. The draft wouldn’t help matters much, anyway, since not everyone of draft age could be snagged into going.
My main issue now is that, as you said, it took people THIS long to wake up about this war and Bush’s overall agenda. I’d argue that, perhaps Rangel should have spoken of reinstating the draft a long time ago been a little louder during his previous calls for draft reinstatement, if he really wanted to shake up the masses as badly as he did this time. The anti-war protests are not as vociferious and violent as they were back in the ’60’s. Somehow, even now, I get the feeling that, as a country, we’re not feeling as if we don’t have as much at stake now, in terms of whatever conflict we’re involved with this time, as we did back then.

3 | Freedom In America » Bring Back the Draft?

November 21st, 2006 at 10:03 am

[...] Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel’s latest call to quickly restart the military draft was shot down yesterday by incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party members, who said it will not be part of the Democrats’ legislative agenda. Read More…. [...]

4 | bigstarlet

November 21st, 2006 at 6:10 pm

Whoah! Have I been mistaken for a Democrat?

Oh well…