It would be far better to eliminate war as a means of dispute resolution and seeking global hegemony.

Every time I see or read these arguments about the best ways to raise an army, conscripting our youth for the commission of violence, and the most efficient ways to wage wars and kill entire populations if need be, I am reminded that man is and will always be his own worst enemy.

Every time I hear of the spectacular sums of money sunk into this effort I stop to think, how many could we feed, house, educate, and care for with that money? How many of the elderly and infirm could be raised from poverty and cured of the ills that beset them? How many improvements could be made to the benefit of man instead of towards destruction of the entire human race?

No, I think the better debate to have, by far, is how can we stop the madness of war, reduce the war machine to a purely defensive machine on a vastly smaller scale, and shrink the Pentagon's budget to a fraction of what it is now and put those trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars devoted to death and convert them to an investment to assure the peaceful survival and advancement of man?

I know the warhawks here will savage me tirelessly for what they will term a "pie in the sky" fantasy wish for peace, but unless you endeavor to succeed, you never will.

A Democratic ascendancy in the US Congress will also make all the more likely the renewal of the draft--the dragooning of American youth into the military to serve as cannon fodder in Iraq and elsewhere.

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, the principal figure in the US House of Representatives responsible for selecting this year's Democratic candidates, has written a book entitled The Plan, which lays out the party's agenda on a number of issues. This includes the creation of a new mandatory program of "universal citizen service" in which "all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service."

While the book claims this is not a step toward the draft, one doesn't have to be a soothsayer to predict that, combined with Democratic criticisms that not enough troops have been deployed in Iraq and the party's proposal to significantly expand the ranks of the US Army, this is precisely what it represents.

And the restoration of the draft to provide the military forces needed in both current and future US wars can far better be advanced by the Democrats than by discredited figures like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Already, Democratic politicians have indicated the line of the "liberal" argument for expanded militarism, pitching it as "equality of sacrifice" in which the burden would not be borne only by the disadvantaged.

Even if there were a war, it would not have gone on so long.

Simply put, all would serve for two years, starting upon graduation from highschool or age 19, whichever came first. After two years they could go active reserve for 8 years with monthly three day meetings and annual two week meetings. Or, they could go to active duty for four additional years with an additional two years of inactive reserve.

We have the greatest military in the world, but our civilians suffer from not being allowed to serve, and our military men suffer from not being around those elite youngsters who are destined by luck of birth to have parents who have no understanding of the rest of the country and forsee a bountiul future for their children as stock brokers, attorneys, etc. Protected by the military.

I can see it now. A stock broker's daughter drinking beer at the Enlisted Club with a truck driver's son. Aw, the sweet smell of love...or at least lust... ;-)

btw jeralyn, the draft, per se, didn't stop vietnam. the knowledge that neither the military nor the civilian leadership had a clue, and that our military intelligence was so ineffective, the nva could plan and execute the tet offensive, without a hint of it leaking to us, combined with the draft, finally ended that war.

tet was supposedly a military failure for the nva, and only the american media's negative reaction caused it to be anything else, or so popular lore has it. hogwash. it was the unrivaled intelligence success in military history, for the nva.

Rover turns out the religious flunkies by telling them, the gays are coming for you....
Rangel turns out the Dem base, by raising the specter of the draft.

And, remember, Rangel represents the Harlem district, which has taken a bunch of casualties (as has the minority population in the rest of NYC and elsewhere) - this is a bit of constitutent service, so to speak.  He's putting their gripe center stage.

The interesting thing about this is, it will put the Repugs in the difficult position of either supporting the draft "Support the troops" - to keep the bloodshed going -(which Dems predicted in 04 was the inevitable result of the Wah on Terrah in Iraq), or voting against it, and sending the messages that (a) they don't support Bushie and Rummy and Deadeye's plan for world domination, (b) they like exploiting the poor, and (c) they are afraid of exposing their kids to danger, prefering to let the poor and minority do their dying for them, and (d) it allows the Dems to remind the public that, before this all went to crap, when a few more soldiers might have made the difference, Bushie told us to go shopping.

In both choices, the Repugs would find themselves in the position of giving their Dem opponents in 08 a big stick with which to hit them over the head.  (not that it cannot be wielded both ways, but the Repugs would take the worse of it).

And, as to the how to work it, my suggestion:

Section 1. Eligibility for induction
(a) All persons between the ages of 18 and 45 are eligible for induction.
(b)  Certain persons shall be eligible for deferment of induction, as set forth in section 4.
(c) No deferment of induction shall extend more than a combined total of six calendar months.

Section 2. Enhanced eligibility for induction, selective assignment.
(a) Any person eligible for enhanced induction shall be inducted immediately and assigned for service as described in section 3 hereof.
(b)  Any person eligible for enhanced induction shall not receive any deferment of service.
(c) The following persons are eligible for enhanced induction:
(1) all persons within the third degree of consanguinity, including by marriage, adoption, or otherwise of any person:
(A) employed within the period beginning September 11, 2001 in
(i) the Senior Executive Service
(ii) as a Member of Congress
(iii)  as a Senator,
(iv) a Justice of the Supreme Court, Judge of any Court of Appeals, Judge of any District Court, or
(v)  as an aide to, assistant to or employee of any person employed in any of the categories in supbaragraphs (i), (ii), (iii) or (iv) hereof;  or
(B) who claimed on any return of federal or state income taxes an adjusted gross income of more than $1,000,000.00 in any year during the period beginning January 1, 2001;  or
(C) who received any distribution from any estate, trust or other entity in an amount in excess of $3,000,000.00 in any year during the period beginning January 1, 2001, excepting payments from state lotteries.
(d)  The eligibility for enhanced induction shall be liberally construed in favor of eligibility for enhanced induction and all cases of doubt shall be resolved infavor of induction.

Section 3.  Selective assignment.
(a) No person inducted under the privisions of section 2 hereof shall be eligible to receive a commission as an officer in any branch of the military service for a period of no less than three years after the date of induction.
(b)  All persons inducted under the provisions of section 2 hereof shall be assigned as follows:
(1)  Males shall be assigned to duties as infantrymen, combat engineers, cannon artillerymen, cavalry scouts, or tank/armored vehicle crewmen.
(2)  Females shall be assigned to duty as combat field medical personnel.
(3)  All persons, upon completion of basic training no longer than 16 weeks, shall be assigned in positions involving direct exposure to enemy fire.

Section 4.  Deferment of induction.
(a) Medical reasons.  
(i) No person shall be exempted from induction by reason of medical reasons.  Any determination of inability to perform military duties by medical reasons shall be made after induction.
(ii)  In the event a person so inducted shall be medically unable to perform the duties described in Section 3 hereof, the finding of such inability and the reasons therefor shall be a public record and not subject to any provision of any law precluding disclosure, nor shall it be the subject of any privilege against disclosure.
(b) College and educational deferment.  Any person subject to induction and then presently enrolled in a course of study shall be eligible to defer induction until two weeks after the completion of the current semester of instruction.  Any person eligible for enhanced induction under section 2 hereof shall not be eligible for the deferment under this subsection.

Section 5.  Priority of induction.
The Selective Service shall induct those persons eligible for enhanced induction under this act first, and to the exclusion of persons not eligible for enhanced induction, until such time as all requirements of the respective military services for personnel have been filled.

1)If Pelosi is smart, it never comes up for a vote, and it's simply forgotten

2) If Pelosi is dumb, she provides it as a club to Republicans to beat Democrats with.  In this case, the measure will be defeated with only a handful of yes votes (likely not including Rangel's own, if past performance is anything to go on).

one thing: why limit females to combat medical duty? they can fire a weapon just as well as the boys can, they deserve equal opportunity to get their butts shot off. it's the right thing to do.

i have to laugh at you jarober, you are such a transparent channeler of republican spin:

the republican president and congress f*'d up the whole iraq "war". they've not nearly enough troops available, to effectively control the situation, but they've known all along that re-instituting the draft would result in their utter, complete destruction as a political party.

so, they somehow contrive to turn this into the dems fault; that consideration of a return to the draft is even plausible, while ignoring the fact that it's the repubs fault that it even has to be realistically considered to begin with.

Watching you some of you guys force youselves to make up reasons to support this because a democrat put it out there shows your partisan colors.

In 2004 almost everyone who's posted here used talk of a draft as a reason to vote for Kerry.   Now because a democrat was stupid enough to put this on the table you guys are having to bend the laws of physics to figure out a way to support this.

Hilarious.

What are we going to do with all these dratees when we get them?   Send them to Iraq?   I thought the democrats wanted to get out of Iraq?  Now they want a draft?  If we pull the troops out of Iraq then what are all of them for?

Maybe we could line the boarder with Mexico and keep all the illegal immigrants out?   Maybe we could declare martial law in the ghetto's and arrest all the petty drug criminals that give us all so much trouble?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A reinstatement of the military draft, being pushed by a senior Democrat, will not be slated for consideration in the House of Representatives, the chamber's newly elected top leaders said on Monday.

"We did not include that" in legislative plans for early next year, said Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who will be House majority leader when the new Congress convenes in January under Democratic control for the first time in 12 years.

That's ridiculous. We've been aware of Rangel's position on the draft. It came out during the effing campaign. You think that this latest move is some big surprise? Think again.

No one here wants the draft. It's just viewed as a potential second level consequence of Bush's screw ups. We wouldn't even be talking about it if Bush hadn't F***ed up Iraq.