Call For Military Draft 'Grossly Insulting' To Congress

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 1/06/03 | Jeff Johnson

[RWG]

I would let it out of the house and see what went on in the senate. If the democRATS produced an outrageous bill and hopefully they would it could be held up for inspection and embarrassment in the senate where it could find a timely death. No threat to actually become law but just an exercise in letting a public record be created that incumbents would have to defend. After the last election cycle Pelosi and Landrieu bent over backwards to associate themselves with Bush. Now all the presidential candidates are saying how wrong he is. Should have the same conflict for them next cycle and a good way or at least one public record to be defended would be a stupid draft bill.

[steve-b]

Conyers denied that the proposal was intended to interfere with possible military action against Iraq.

Did Clinton teach him how to tell ridiculous lies with a straight face, of did he teach Clinton?

[steve-b]

it removes the long-held stigma that people of color and persons from low-income backgrounds are disproportionately killed and injured while serving as ground troops on the front line

The alleged "facts" behind this claim have already been shown to be, well, non-factual. However, the whole argument should also be refuted on a more fundamental level.

Yes, jobs that involve much unpleasantness and relatively little reward are going to be disproprotionately filled with "people from low-income backgrounds". This is because people with the wherewithal to get more enjoyable and better paid jobs will usually do just that, thereby removing themselves from the "low-income background" category.

The bottom line is that if you want to bring a more upscale crowd into the Army, you have to either make it less difficult (which doesn't square very well with the quaint concept of "military readiness") or more rewarding (i.e. better pay, more training that can be applied to a later civilian job search, etc).

[steve-b]

I read the argument that the purpose of a draft is to avoid paying people well enough that they freely choose to be in the military.

But Rangel and Conyers need the money for more important things, like more welfare. This is even good for the troops, since some of them are so poorly paid that they themselves qualify to collect....

[houstonian]

Rangel and Conyers are openly inciting racial trouble in the military on the eve of battle. Their premise is offensive and racist. Will the democrats be forced to make them resign, ala Trent Lott? Or will their party's race baiting problem be acknowledged?

Exactly right. Pubbies need to call these race-baiters for what they are. There will be blood on the hands of those dividing national unity on the eve of war.