Quote Originally Posted by nx6d View Post
A little bit of tangent here, sorry to steal your thunder Albert, but this whole concept of the military being made up of mostly right wing leaning people makes me think we need to reinstate the draft, without deferments. This would give a true cross section of society in the military, instead of the right leaning group we have now.
No theft involved, Dave. I agree totally.

One of the reasons Charlie Rangel was -- and remains -- a hero to me is that Rangel knew this at the gut level. Every new Congress, Rangel would introduce legislation to restore the peace-time draft. Most people misunderstood this, and Rangel always suffered bad press at the hands of both liberals and loonies.

What Rangel understood so clearly was that without a draft, war is detached from the public. It becomes a sort of "private matter" among the politicians, the defense industry and the professional military -- three groups that never saw a war they did not like. Unless the casualty lists are being nailed up on that Civil War monument down front of the courthouse, people have the opportunity to ignore whatever killing is taking place. After all, it is just a few "isolated" families here and there who lose a son to death or maiming. Unless the risk is shared generally among the whole public, the killing continues.

This nation has been in a constant state of war since 1947, when HST sent US troops into Greece. Since that time, US kids have been put in harm's way every year, by every president or either party. With the notable exceptions of Korea and VN, most of the actions have been small -- that is, they were small until the idiot Bush Dynasty valued oil above US lives.

Had the draft still been on the books when the Bushes began their oleaginous crusades, VN style demonstrations and mass incidences of civil disobedience may have saved some of the lives that were sacrificed to stupidity and greed. That Obama continues this evil tradition does not give me any satisfaction.