By Michael J. Smith on Tuesday September 19, 2006 05:59 PM
bobw passes this along:
I dont know if you caught this, from an article by William Norman Grigg linked today on antiwar.com:Personally I have mixed feelings about conscription. One of the reasons the anti-war movement amounted to something in the Vietnam period was... the draft. The volunteer army was a brilliant strategem from a political point of view, though its effectiveness as an instrument of empire may be less than was hoped. If we had a conscript army, though, I don't think we would have had an Iraq war at all, and certainly not such a long one.In their new campaign manifesto The Plan, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council, call for "a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us by establishing, for the first time, an ethic of universal citizen service.... All Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service.... Universal citizen service will bring Americans of every background together to make America safer and more united in common purpose." One function of that proposal would be to expand the military by at least 100,000 men - a target that belies Emanuel and Reed's assurance that they don't endorse a return to conscription.A bill containing essentially the same proposal has been submitted by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), one of the most left-leaning House members; the concept has been endorsed by Republican presidential aspirant Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Comments (10)
rahm may know of what he speaksdidn't he serve in one of these
nellie belle nat conscript outfits....in israel
he was a nurse wasn;t he ???
a toe dancing nurse perhaps
Posted by js paine | September 19, 2006 6:13 PM
Posted on September 19, 2006 18:13
i myself advocate an all male
draft for the 40 -to 60 set
just the right moxie to snap a mid life crisis in two
Posted by js paine | September 19, 2006 6:15 PM
Posted on September 19, 2006 18:15
I don't know why you have such mixed feelings about it; you know it's one of the things this country needs to get The People(tm) off their goddamn' couches and into the street -- the threat of them or theirs being scooped up and impressed into service in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or...
A return to conscription, along with a nuclear strike on Tehran and ten-dollar-a-gallon gasoline, and perhaps a ten or twelve percent unemployment rate, I think, is what it'll take to really get people up on their feet and into the street...at least for starters.
And the really good news this time will be that among those roiling masses of pissed-off unemployed, will be roiling masses of university-degreed, pissed-off white-collar professionals, including people who know how to crack into corporate networks.
Let it roll, baby, roll.
We're all "Black Bloc" now.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | September 19, 2006 7:24 PM
Posted on September 19, 2006 19:24
I guess my mixed feelings come from the fact that the public would surely resist it, and I can't say they'd be wrong. Or would they? Resist, I mean. Rahm has presumably seen some polls. Ditto McCain.
Posted by mjs | September 19, 2006 8:12 PM
Posted on September 19, 2006 20:12
I'd support JSP's version of the draft, but only that one. I really dislike youngsters, but I dislike my peer more. It would be worth it to take a few risks myself to be sure our ranks were thinned a little. I'm positive enough of my fellow geezers and early stage geezers could also get it together for a few rounds of salubrious fragging, which would help our peer even more.
Posted by J. Alva Scruggs | September 19, 2006 11:34 PM
Posted on September 19, 2006 23:34
I can't frag, but as a one-time catering drone, I'm a whiz at strategic food poisoning. J. Alva would have to use his hacking skills to make sure that I was stationed in a cushy Green Zone where the generals and visiting dignitaries from back home do most of their dining.
With Trader Joes, et al providing the appropriate produce and a little cunning use of room-temperature mayo, I can't miss.
Posted by ms_xeno | September 20, 2006 12:09 AM
Posted on September 20, 2006 00:09
I'm not sure we should be looking back at the Vietnam War for inspiration. It killed magnitudes more Americans than the Iraq War (and probably more Vietnamese than Iraqis, though those numbers are less well-known). It also was, despite its size, rather ineffective at actually stopping the war. 65-73, as years of American involvement, is significantly longer than our time in Iraq.
While having a larger anti-war movement would be great, I'd personally prefer an effective one. Conscription seems to have far more evils attached to it than that negligible good.
Posted by Rowan | September 20, 2006 2:03 AM
Posted on September 20, 2006 02:03
"All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door." - John Kenneth Galbraith
During Vietnam, the draftees did a great deal of damage inside the military. Iraq is ready made for draftees run amok. I can hardly wait.
Posted by Jesus Reyes | September 20, 2006 9:13 AM
Posted on September 20, 2006 09:13
My point of view is closer to Rowan's.
I also got the chance to see THE PLAN (matching the bombast of the title with sarcastic capitalization) yesterday at a bookstore. Rarely do I see a book jacket that symbolizes the approach of the authors so completely, with enormous letters of dull grey imposing themselves upon everything and everyone below them.
Posted by DoubleHelix | September 20, 2006 2:02 PM
Posted on September 20, 2006 14:02
can't we achieve conscription for Rahm - and Bruce Reed and a few others?
I'd even agree that Rahm can take his toe shoes along. And some tulle.
''Don't ask don't tell''. The likes of Reed and Rahm should know the Drill. Being Clintonites and all.
Posted by Marisacat | September 20, 2006 3:25 PM
Posted on September 20, 2006 15:25