Military draft about to be reinstated
January 28th, 2007 - Posted by Alan Howard
Story here.
At least one lawmaker has proposed a radical alternative. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., wants to reinstate the draft.
His proposal would require all U.S. residents ages 18 to 42 to perform two years of national service, either in the military or as civilians working in ports, hospitals or some other public-service role. The only people exempted would be high school students up to age 20, conscientious objectors and those who are too unhealthy to serve.
Entry Filed under: Outraged
One Response to “Military draft about to be reinstated”
Posted: Jan 29th, 2007 at
Alan,
the Rangel proposal is I think almost 2 years old. To be fair, I don’t think he was serious about reviving the draft per se as much as using the proposal to put pressure on the White House to talk honestly about the number of soldiers it would take to stay in Iraq.
I actually believe that if we are going to fight wars, a draft that draws on indviduals from all sectors of society makes perfect sense. One reason the British Empire was as successful as it was is that the aristocracy actually served in its foreign expeditions. Of course, to what end, I’m not sure.
That tradition is clearly on the wane in the United States. I personally know a lot of people with military age children and almost none of those families have anyone serving. My son’s fiancee actually did recently enlist though.
when you are sending other people’s children to war, you tend to make the decisions very differently.
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