Draft This

Almost two weeks since the election. Happiness ensues. Rep. Charles B. Rangel(D-NY) wants to reinstate the Draft. Slavery ensues. Again.

Now, I do agree with raising troop levels in Iraq to at least three to four times the amount present to win this war fast and get the hell out, but reawaking this devisive and unconstitutional measure seems insane and a throwback to dividing the nation. And of course, he had to be a long-time Democrat from New York. And here I was proud to be a New Yorker and relieved that the majority of Democrats won both the House and Senate.

Rangel's proposed bill and Sen. John McCain's trumpet for escalation is just what everyone was talking about after the election - bipartisan smooching and rubbing. I doubt it will pass, and the support of those in the military and in America will not allow such an event to happen, but I'm sure glad Democrats and Republicans are getting along so well, gosh darnit.

There has to be another way to do it. How? I have no idea. I don't want my brother, who is 23 this year, heading over there. I'll give him money for an extended trip to the Philippines instead of having that money go to his own personal body armor. While he's there, he can remind American officials of the past conflict, after the Spanish-American war. When the U.S. liberated the Philippines from the oppresive Spanish colonialism, a decade-long insurgency of Filipino nationalists and Muslims wanted to push America out of the region, reluctant to more foreign rule. The conflict was long, protracted and unpopular here at home.

I want America's past idealism to ring true in the present, but poor leadership has created a lesser world view of this once beacon of hope and prosperity. I don't want to think about it anymore. Iraq, war, immigration, Homeland Security, Terror. And that's why someone else is doing the thinking for me, our elected officials. It's their job to focus on it when everyone else must go about there lives. But if something like the draft starts to affect more and more people's lives, there will be dire consequences here at home, like the sixties, and individuals will start thinking for themselves and taking action.

After Hitler's invasions followed by Pearl Harbor, America rallied together with a million strong in the military through a phased draft and volounteers. Vietnam was a slow burn without a great rallying event for the people, although the Gulf of Tonkin incident sparked more military increases and a draft. 9/11 brought the country together and we felt accomplishment in Afghanistan, though Osama still has not been found. But along the way, the course was not stayed, and we ended up in Iraq. Something else needs to be done by our country as a whole to rally together again, in order to prevent the tragedy and national mourning of another 9/11. If a large scale attack happened, our country would again rally, and it is absolutely possible that attacks will occur. If that happens, a draft might be feasible. But that doesn't mean I'd agree with it. And neither would Americans, taking their cause to the streets.