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Author: blockhead on November 24 2006

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People who enjoyed reading this: Otterfan, jcd, jogn

--> So recently we had an election here in the U.S. The overall result of the election is that the House and Senate (legislative branch of our government) now has more Democrats than Republicans in it. This means that the Democrats pretty much control the House and Senate. Prior to this, the Republicans controlled the House & Senate. Presumably, this change in party is because of voters wanting to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. They (the voters) voted for Democrats because Democrats have been criticizing President Bush (jr) and the War in Iraq. The logic here is that since the Democrats criticize the war so much, they must want to pull out of the war.
So I'm watching TV the other day, just flipping channels and I see a Democrat senator talking about reinstating the draft. Must be a fluke, one Democrat senator who is unclear on Party Line. I eventually switched channels and moved on, almost forgetting the incident. The next day, also channel surfing, I see a quick news story about Democrats and the draft! WTF? Let's see, if Democrats were elected for the purpose of getting the US out of the war, why are they planning to bring back the draft? Wouldn't they only need to do that if they wanted more soldiers? And they would only need more soldiers if they were going to do more war, not less war, right?

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Comments

11/24/06 + Fredo

I was similarly puzzled by that. WTF? I assume there is some logical explaination that i am just not getting...

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11/24/06 + bsr

you think you live in a democracy?

11/24/06 + soft

no such thing ^^^

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edited: Nov 24 2006 + Otterfan

Chuck Rangel is the Congressman who proposes brining the draft back. For a US congressman, he's a liberal. He was arrested a couple of years ago for trespassing at the Sudanese embassy to protest human rights abuses.

He wants to do it for two reasons:

1) He claims that since the draft was eliminated the military has been disproportionately made up of the poor and minorities. The draft would make it more reflective of the US population. The minority part of this argument has some problems (the Army is socially progressive--at least on racial issues--and lots of minorities join for the opportunities), but the class issue is definitely real, at least in the enlisted corps.

2) This is the important one. He claims that the leadership would be less likely to start wars if they knew it meant risking the lives of the sons and daughters of a large proportion of their constituency--and presumably the leaders' own children as well. It's a lot easier for George Bush to send troops to Iraq if he only has to worry about a bunch of poor rural kids than if, say, Rupert Murdoch's grandkids are going to be on the front line.

I'd add a third reason as well:

3) It would bring left-wingers back into the military discussion. The military has grown progressively more and more right-wing since the 60s. Most liberals (especially before 2001) treated the army like it was unclean. They didn't join, they didn't support it, and they didn't bother learning how it worked. If they get drafted as young people, they'll become involved.

I've got a kind of unique perspective on this: when I was a kid my dad was a far left-wing (especially for the military) instructor at the US Military Academy. He was often the only real exposure cadets would get to liberal ideas. He always believed the draft should be reinstated, so that soldiers could be exposed to a more diverse range of political views.

Despite how a lot of the left feel, the military is important and (in some form) necessary. I'd like to think that if more progressive heads were running the military over the last few years we'd have no troops in Iraq, a functioning government in Afghanastan, and maybe even a monitored peace in Darfur.

I'm not sure how I feel about the draft. It was eliminated because the rich were finding ways around it, and the Army claims that they can train soldiers better under the current system. Still, it's an idea that should be discussed, and I think Rangel should be heard.

Of course, this being a democracy, the chances of the draft actually getting reinstated are pretty low.

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11/24/06 + jcd

Thanks Otterfan, that answers a lot of questions about this whole thing that I haven't seen addressed otherwise. People (especially those on TV, who have an opportunity to discuss issues and inform their veiwers) seem to prefer false rage to honest inquiry.

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11/29/06 + bbwax

1. democrats = republicans = democrats = republicans = military industrial congressional complex.

2. ask yourself why are there no strong 3rd parties in this country?

3. see bsr's comment above.

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11/29/06 + ejectorset

see that is why i dont like/trust democrats or buy into their crap. the hypocrasy of it all.

at least with someone like gwb you know he is all about guns and oil and war and money and rich people and shit. you knew that before he got elected.

the draft seems like the anti-democrat/liberal thing.
make people that don't want to go to war, go to war.

what happened the old school sit around and smoke weed and make signs that say "make love not war" attitude?

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