I'm flabbergasted! I am gasted with flabber!

[allisnow]

Rangel Calls for Reinstating Military Draft

WASHINGTON — A senior House Democrat said Sunday he will introduce legislation to reinstate the military draft, asserting that current troop levels are insufficient to sustain possible challenges against Iran, North Korea and Iraq.

*gasp* A Democrat would do something like that?

Comments

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

Curious query: has calling for the military draft traditionally been the province of either party?

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

I don't know about that; I do know it was a Republican Presidential candidate back in the 60s tried to get rid of it. In general Democrats are not seen as a pro-military party... I don't suppose you heard about Kerry implying they're stupid a few weeks ago?

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

It vaguely tickles my memory - he alleged that he was trying to make a slam at Dubya and ended up...oh, yeah, now I remember.

Something about soldiers being idiots because they can't get educated anywhere else and so they go into the armed forces. And he claimed he was trying to dig at Dubya, but no cigar.

I believe the general feeling was that disagreeing with the manner or running of a war was one thing, but slamming the nation's entiremilitary was another kettle of fish.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

The gist of it was that, if you work hard and get an education you'll go far, and if you don't you'll get stuck in Iraq.

Dumbass.

[particle-mann.livejournal.com]

War and drafts both are surprisingly bipartisan things, with roughly an equal balance for each. Lincoln, a Republican, instituted the first national draft in 1862 (which led to the New York draft riots, which inspired Gangs Of New York). Wilson, a Democrat, brought it back for the great piece of idiocy that was World War I (http://antiwar.com/horton/?articleid=5711), and another Democrat, Roosevelt, kept it going for World War II. Korea was started by a Democrat (Truman) and finished by a Republican (Eisenhower). Vietnam, the last time we had a draft, was started under Eisenhower, escalated by two Democrats (Kennedy and Johnson), and wasn't officially over until a Republican (Nixon) watched a lot more body bags pile up. The tally for starting wars splits along roughly the same lines as well. Democrats started/entered into the two biggest (WWI and II) and kept the other big one going (Vietnam) but the Republicans generally went along for the ride. The smaller ones are about an even deal-the Republicans had Panama, Grenada, and Gulf I (I'm counting Laos/Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War), while the Dems had all the joyous Clinton wars of Serbia, Somalia, the continued bombing of Iraq, and the occasional bombing of pharmaceutical factories in Africa. Republicans are in the lead as far as this century goes, but just give it time.

And like a recent antiwar.com (http://antiwar.com) blog entry (http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2006/11/19/democrats-the-party-of-slavery/) pointed out, I can't be the only one who sees the bitter irony of a black person calling for the return of slavery (http://www.efn.org/~fairhous/13thamen.html)

If anyone cares to look, some of this came up in a recent rant (http://particle-mann.livejournal.com/55058.html) in my own space lamenting the passing of Milton Friedman (a major opponent of the draft in his lifetime, and one of the big reasons we don't have it today) and ruminating on the state of political affairs in this country.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

IIRC, he's actually been calling for one for awhile now... despite the fact that the military leaders have repeatedly told him they don't need one and they definitely don't want one.

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he has... back in 2003, wasn't it? Wiki mentions it, but oddly enough doesn't mention which party in the HoR proposed it.

[particle-mann.livejournal.com]

If I'm not mistaken (and I certainly could be), I believe the Republicans introduced it the last time, where it was voted down on something like a 402-2 vote (yes, Rangel voted against his own bill). When asked to explain his vote, the good Congressman claimed that it was rushed through the House without a full hearing as a political dirty trick.