Moral health tip to America: Stay out of draft byANDREW GREELEY

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Moral health tip to America: Stay out of draft

http://www.suntimes.com/news/greeley/156042,CST-EDT-greel01.article
December 1, 2006
BY ANDREW GREELEY
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) celebrated the Democratic election victory by proposing to renew the military draft. His oft-repeated argument is that the draft would produce an army with social and racial equity. White, college-educated young men and women would have to serve as target practice for Shiites, Sunnis and other murderous tribes in Iraq when they take time out from killing one another.
Others jumped on the bandwagon. If President Bush had college men and women wading into the Big Muddy, young people would have rioted, wealthy parents would have complained, the war would have stopped.

Just like the Vietnam War stopped in 1968, right?

The war will stop because people voted against it and against the president. (Eighty percent would vote against him if he could run again.)

Rangel's argument is patently sick. It assumes that Bush would be cowed by riots in the street. Moreover, there is no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet in this country, from elections to street demonstrations (except maybe in Florida, where ballots don't count anymore). To create social unrest through a draft is to shortcut the electoral process.

One should ask Rangel if the draft created such racial and social equity in the 1960s, how the president and vice president managed to avoid combat. How could such draft dodgers be elected to high office? And don't tell me that the president served in the Texas Air National Guard. That's like serving in the Nebraska Navy.

[Vidar]

1. Once again, I agree with Greeley. Rangel's idea, even if

well-intentioned, could all too easily backfire, providing fodder for futher Bush misadventures in Ira, Syria & elsewhere.

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2. the Draft is Daft