Trying to revive the 60s.

Charles Rangel wants the draft back not to aid our military in the war, but to create a 60s redux, with potential draftees undercutting the entire military effort:

Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 under a bill the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he will introduce next year.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars.

“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 the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm’s way,” Rangel said.

Rangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, has said the all-volunteer military disproportionately puts the burden of war on minorities and lower-income families.

Please note how Rangel relies upon the canard about the modern military’s make-up to support his demand for a draft. Also, note his less than ingenuous statement that politicians would be reluctant to prey upon their young constituents. That is not what he’s hoping for at all. He’s hoping for a renewal of the riots in the streets that characterized the 1960s.

As one wonderful post long ago pointed out, our world is made up of pinks and greys. The greys, whether voluntarily or under coercion, will go off and fight wars. The only thing the pinks will fight for in today’s world is the right not to fight.  As Michael Medved said in his book Right Turns, the war protests stopped when the draft stopped. That is, the pinks weren’t protesting the Vietnam war; they were protesting being asked to fight in that war — and their protests successfully ground the war to a halt. That’s what Rangel hopes will happen now.

I agree with Rangel on one thing: I like the idea of a universal draft, at least in theory. Certainly, it would be a good mixer-upper for young people (Paris Hilton consorting with a taxi-driver’s son, kind of thing), which might ease a lot of social and racial tensions in a country that’s become somewhat balkanized. Additionally, it gives kids useful skills and discipline before they head off to drink themselves silly in college — but I don’t think our culture will sustain it.

In Israel, the draft works because the country is under imminent and extreme threat, which forces everyone to be a grey. In Switzerland, it works because the country is under no threat at all, which makes service viable for the pinks. Here, with a real but still limited threat, and an anti-War movement working to downplay risks and reality, we have the perfect system: volunteer greys, since the pinks will never come on board. Thank you, greys!

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