In what can only be called an odd role-reversal, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), who will chair the House Ways and Means committee come January, said he would seek passage next year of universal draft legislation.
Rangel told CBS’ “Face the Nation” yesterday that “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”, adding that the war in Iraq is being fought by American soldiers who disproportionately are from low-income families and minorities and implying a desire to change that.
While this isn’t the first time Rangel has called for reinstating the draft, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tried to spin Congressman Rangel’s words by saying that Rangel knows his legislation will not be successful but wants to use the center stage to underscore that the U.S. war effort should be a “shared sacrifice” and his legislation was “a way to make that point.” She added that she personally opposes reinstating the draft and that Rangel’s post in the House Ways and Means Committee will not give him an effective forum for pursuing his military draft legislation.
Years ago, Congressman Rangel defended his support of the draft by saying that “this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq 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.” While this might be the case, I think that if you suggest bringing back the draft just to make a point, you’re going to extremes that make millions of people anxious. Punishing the entire American youth just to flip off a few people in power smells like collective punishment to me. Polls show that over 70% of the American population oppose a reinstatement of the draft.
Republican and Democratic leaders alike rushed to ensure the populace that they too oppose the draft. Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the incoming Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, told reporters “I don’t think we need it,” while the outgoing House Armed Services Committee chairman, Duncan Hunter (R-CA) said the military has been meeting its recruitment goals. “You have a draft and you have a lot of people who don’t want to serve … to force them to come in and take the place of volunteers doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
I can’t help but find all this very odd. Since the military draft was abolished in 1973 under the Nixon presidency, when the US was withdrawing from Vietnam, Republican presidential candidates are routinely asked whether they plan to reinstate the draft. Notably, president George W. Bush was asked this repeatedly when running for re-election in 2004. When, two decades earlier, president Reagan increased the defense budget, fears of the draft being reinstated were even more palpable.
Of course, neither Reagan nor Bush ever brought the question to the table. So I find it striking that a man who has been the Democratic Congressman for Upper Manhattan for the past 35 years mentions bringing back the draft as his first order of business once the Democrats gain control of Capitol Hill in January.
Rangel’s previous attempt to reinstate the draft in 2003 was defeated 402-2 in the House of Representatives. I don’t see his current attempt, which will come to a vote in early 2007, fare any better, but it’s funny to see him try.
Popularity: 46% [?]
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