[Caesar Soze]

Isn't it just like a Democrat, to take something like National Security, realize we may need a Draft and then turn it into some type of social/public service organization.\?

No different than certain Republicans (not you, but you know who I mean) agitating to bring back the draft as some kind of social experiment. "We need to get the kids away from their PlayStations and Nintendos and teach them how hard it was in 1943! That'll straighten them out! Never mind family structures, media influences, or public morality, the draft is good for what ails ya!"

The draft, as a descendant of the militia and the fyrd, exists to levy troops for military purposes only. It's not there to provide jobs to youths, to instill values, to beautify the environment, or to increase social cohesion. It exists -- when it does -- to provide a surge of man-power for the enterprise of breaking things and killing people.

Other societies do have a perpetual draft, and that works for them, but that doesn't mean it will work in the highly-individualistic American culture. The draft denies individuals a great deal of their freedom, sometimes their lives; infringing on liberty to this degree requires a great deal of justification. No draft supporter from either side has justified the idea to my satisfaction.

IMHO, YMMV.

[Polonius]

No different than certain Republicans (not you, but you know who I mean) agitating to bring back the draft as some kind of social experiment. "We need to get the kids away from their PlayStations and Nintendos and teach them how hard it was in 1943! That'll straighten them out! Never mind family structures, media influences, or public morality, the draft is good for what ails ya!"

The draft, as a descendant of the militia and the fyrd, exists to levy troops for military purposes only. It's not there to provide jobs to youths, to instill values, to beautify the environment, or to increase social cohesion. It exists -- when it does -- to provide a surge of man-power for the enterprise of breaking things and killing people.

Well said. I'm all for the draft being an option in a time of military emergency, not as a back door to turning America into a modern Sparta or introducing something akin to mandatory AmeriCorps service. America wasn't founded as a regimented society under the control of the central government. We may need the draft again, but certainly not for the sake of Iraq, where the administration's goal is greater Iraqi self-reliance. This is just a transparent political ploy by Rangel, one which his fellow Democrats (especially those who fought against the draft in the Vietnam era) should be ashamed of.