11/20/06: Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel, who will chair the House Ways and Means Committee in the new Congress, announced he will be sponsoring a bill to reinstate the draft.
Rangel said on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday:
“I don’t see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft.”
and
“If we’re going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can’t do that without a draft.”
These comments come in the midst of calls from some military leaders and politicians to send more troops to Iraq to stabalize the country and win the war. John McCain, for example, recently called for 20,000 more troops to be sent to Iraq.
Rangel justifies his call for reinstating the draft by pointing to the fact that military recruits are disproportionately drawn from minorities and the poor. He claims instituting a draft would level the playing field and make politicians think twice before starting a war. While certainly the (often false) promise of college education and better career opportunities for military recruits has the effect of bribing people who otherwise may not be able to afford college to fight unjust wars, it is unconscienable to use this injustice to call for even greater injustices.
Moreover, in the midst of the Bush administration seeking to find a way to “win” in Iraq in the face of the debacle their war has turned into, no matter what Rangel’s intention, what will calling for a draft in these circumstances serve?