PROBLEM WITH RANGEL DRAFT: Democracy doesn't function perfectly

[yurbud]

Charlie Rangel is right in principle about people paying more attention to when we go to war if we have a draft, but wrong in saying that would translate into fewer wars.

You only have to go back as far as Vietnam to see why. Most people were not aware of foreign affairs enough to oppose the war when it started, which was compounded with pro-war propaganda. So if they had been asked specifically to vote for the war, they might well have done so.

Once opinion of the war did change and people were in the streets protesting and even soldiers were resisting the war, it still took several years for the war to end.

Fewer people may be in the streets without a draft, but when the financial elite decide a war is in their interest, they will shape opinion to fit their goals, and when they lose the public, they will ignore them as long as they possibly can.

Have a draft may shorten the time from onset of war fever to onset of war protest, but it will not prevent a war anymore than Iraqis, Americans, and even American troops wanting the current war to end is speeding the end of this war.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Agreed. Bring back the draft AND roll back media consolidation

restore the fairness doctrine, etc

[yurbud]

2. I'd allow the draft when oil companies aren't allowed to dictate foreign policy.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. you think its just the oil companies?

:)

[yurbud]

8. not just, but that's the biggest demand on our military. Helping the plantation & sweatshop owners

in Latin America doesn't seem to take as much manpower though I would prefer we didn't do that either.

[elocs]

3. There is also the Law of Unintended Consequences which can bite you in the ass. n/t

[endarkenment]

4. Conscription is anathema to a Peaceful Democracy.

The idea that conscription is or ought to be a fundamental feature of citizenship in a democratic republic is a-historical. One should simply ask why, and on what historical basis involuntary military service should be considered integral to citizenship?

Along the way, one might also ask in who's interest it is for the republic to continue to finance a huge standing army, a force vastly beyond what would be needed to defend our nation from military attack?

[BlueEyedSon]

6. So is lobbying. So is secret-machine-tabulated elections.

So is theocracy. So is the unitary executive.

What is your point?

[endarkenment]

7. My point is that people calling for a draft have lost their minds. nt.