Archive | Draft

A reader asked what my thoughts are on conscription — i.e., the draft. I view the draft the same way I view any violation of individual rights: As slavery. In the case of the draft, since your life is at stake, the slavery is as literal as it comes. The common argument in favor of [...]

Congressman Charles Rangel plans to introduce legislation calling for reinstatement of the military draft. He says, “There’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and [...]

Opinion surveys have indicated that a growing number of young people and their parents are wary of the Army’s recruiting pitch at a time when soldiers in Iraq are killed and wounded virtually every day. Spring is typically one of the more difficult periods of the year for military recruiters. Is it time for the [...]

If you are John Kerry, how do you strike fear in the hearts of twenty-somethings–a demographic that typically leans left but is notoriously unlikely to show up at the polls on Election Day? One way is to hint that your opponent plans to draft them into the military. Fanned by Internet speculation and MTV’s “Rock [...]

Last year, Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) introduced bills calling for reinstatement of the military draft. A far more descriptive term for the military draft is government confiscation of labor services, but keeping with the spirit of euphemistic obfuscation, I’ll stick to the term draft. Let’s first ask why a draft [...]

In his Op-Ed column, “To arms,” Tony Blankley argues that the youth of America needs to be sacrificed for the greater good and hints that we may need the draft to do it. Referencing the last living veterans of this generation, Blankly writes: Just as the country that sent those 4.7 million young men off [...]

Since the attacks on 9-11, the issue of the draft has sat simmering on the backburner of American politics with intermittent bouts on the front pages of political news. Its latest proponent is Congressman Charles Rangel, a left-darling from New York, whose entire professional life has been spent in Washington. Quoting Mr. Rangel, “I believe [...]

Charles Rangel, a Congressman strongly opposed to the war against Iraq, is introducing legislation to bring back the draft. How can this be? Ultraliberal congressmen like Rangel quite openly loathe the military, just like our former President Clinton once admitted. They advocate cutting military spending every chance they get. So why on earth would they [...]

Rep. Charles Rangel, (bio, contact) a decorated veteran of the Korean War, says he will introduce legislation to resume the military draft in the event of a war against Iraq. In an op-ed published in the New York Times, Rangel said the prospect of a draft would make Congress less likely to support a war. [...]

Senior military officers are opposing bringing back the military draft. They point out that today’s military is so high-tech and complex that an all-volunteer, trained force is superior. For years, in fact, many military leaders have observed that motivated recruits are better than what amounts to slave labor. This won’t be enough to convince fervent [...]