21 November 2006

The Draft, Iraq and Class Warfare Rhetoric

Incoming House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) has renewed his proposal to reinstate a military draft for the United States. He claims that if a draft were enacted, that the war in Iraq would not continue.

He claims that the war effort is not equally shared across the socioeconomic spectrum. Jesse Jackson has said that rising college costs and a loss of US manufacturing jobs has reduced opportunities for poor and has led many to seek opportunities within the military.

To her credit, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has opposed Rangel's effort, although she commended him for calling for a "shared sacrifice" of military service throughout all socioeconomic strata. Rangel's publicity ploy is nothing more than a renewed attempt at creating a larger rift between Americans by reviving tired class-warfare rhetoric.

I served in the US Army. I volunteered. I went to college, graduated with a degree in Journalism from a top university, and felt a patriotic obligation to serve. In my situation, I had many employment options. I was not overly disadvantaged, but I still willingly choose to put my life on the line in the military. In my Officer Candidate School class (501-04,) I had a classmate who had graduated from Harvard Law School, near the top of his class. He volunteered for the Infantry. Another of my platoon had a degree in finance and left a job with Smith-Barney to serve as an Armor officer.

Jesse Jackson and other civil-rights movement rejects routinely claim that the war is primarily being fought by blacks and Hispanics in a number disproportionate to their representation in the general US population. This is not only inaccurate, it is a flat-out lie. The Infantry is primarily white and a large majority come from the South. There are thousands of soldiers that fight because they believe in their country, not because they have no other options. The idea, reinforced by John Kerry's recent campaign gaff, that the military is a repository for societal misfits and the uneducated is propaganda designed to rally the proletariat to support the Democrats.

The Democrats have a long history of oppressing minorities. According to the Congressional Quarterly (26 June, 1964,) 69% of Senate Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 compared to 82% of Republicans. Former Democrat Senate Leader Robert Bryd admitted to not only being a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but also recruiting for the organization. This was a man who was leading Democrats in the United States Senate? If a Republican had ever even mentioned the KKK, they would be immediately tarred and feathered by the media and Democrats. For any Democrat today to claim that the war is racist or that a draft is needed to balance out the sacrifice is hypocrisy in its most glaring form. The Democrats don't care about the poor. They only care about the poor's vote.

To borrow a phrase from President Bush, the Democrats practice the "soft bigotry of low expectations." For Jesse Jackson to suggest that college is too expensive and a decline of manufacturing leaves poor people with no other options than to join the military, is a calculated and wrong statement. The federal student loan program, along with the Pell Grant and numerous state programs puts college within the reach of any American who desires an escape from their economic status. Rather than bemoan the loss of low-skilled jobs, perhaps the Democrats and Mr. Jackson should welcome the opportunity for poor people to upgrade their skills to become the workforce behind America's future, rather than being slaves to the past.

For further reading:

Experts seek roots of US military makeup (USA Today)

Key Democrats oppose return to draft (Reuters)

Old article about Charles Rangel's 2003 draft bill (CNN)

Article about Democrat opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (National Leadership Network of Conservative African-Americans)

A Senator's Shame: Democrat Robert Bryd and the KKK (Washington Post)

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