I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.
As soon as the Democrats take control they allow people like Rangel to be their mouthpieces and just as quickly find a foot in that mouth. This quote is Rangel’s explanation of why he supports the draft. One would think after the Kerry episode these idiots would be more careful in how they word things. I don’t know how anyone could interpret Rangel’s statement as anything other than a direct insult to those serving in our military. Apparently, Rangel does not believe being in the army is a decent career. Many people in the military do make the choice to join because of a conviction to a patriotic duty. Those are the kind of people I want in our military. If we were to follow Rangel’s advice of a draft our military would be full of people that do not want to be there.
Pay attention to what Rangel is saying, it is the economic and educational benefits that are the main attraction for people to enlist. To follow his logic we could just repeal all of these and we wouldn’t have any volunteers.
If Rangel’s serious about addressing economic inequality in the military, there’s an easy way to do it without imposing a draft. Simply repeal all major economic incentives to enlistment. Per RangelLogic, let the morality of every war be judged by the number of patriots willing to volunteer for it. “Bad” wars will attract few enlistees and end quickly in defeat as we run out of troops; “good” wars, just the opposite. He’d never accept that proposal, of course, because it could conceivably require him to admit that certain wars he opposes are “good” and, worse, that the troops who signed up for them are morally culpable in their execution.
Of course Rangel would never support anything like that, but that is where his illogic leads.
On Rangel’s quote: “I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it.” What if THEY said it themselves? I’m sure it might surprise Mr. Rangel but most of the military folks I know joined out of patriotic duty, did have an education, were not poor and some even gave up very good, high paying jobs in order to join. I’m not sure what kind of education Rangel has, but it obviously didn’t do anything to stop the stupid in his brain from reaching his mouth.
Seems to me that Rangel was doing his best Kerry impression, but don’t expect even a half hearted lame excuse of a botched joke this time. No, this won’t get as much attention as Kerry’s comments, it isn’t election time anymore…but file it away for later reference. I hope they keep running their yap like this for the next two years, maybe, just maybe people will finally see things as they really are.
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