Rangel and the Draft / Hey Media, While You're Covering This...

Much ink is being spilled over Rep. Rangel's renewed call for the reinstatement of a military draft, with only passing mentions being made to Rangel's true intentions, so I will give my two cents. I think Rangel is not doing his party any favors with this (it gives the other side easy headlines), but I can sympathize with his intentions.

For the record, Rep. Rangel has tried to push for this before, the first time in 2003. It became a source of much confusion and controversy during the 2004 presidential campaign when draft fears were being kicked around. Rangel knows it won't pass, but passing it isn't even really the point here.

The larger point he is trying to make is this... that people (for the most part) tend to support wars so much now because the reality of war is something most Americans will never know. Wars are introduced and waged so casually that they are an afterthought on a day-to-day basis. These wars are now 'supported' not with rations and mass enlistments, but by waving flags and putting cheap magnets on our gas-guzzling SUVs. It is easy for people to support wars when they are distant. It makes people feel tough and patriotic to 'support' the war from their homes, though they would never, ever go fight it themselves.

However, if war became a reality to the average American-- where (in theory, anyway) anyone could be called up to go-- you'd better believe we'd all be really reluctant before we support any unnecessary, preemptive wars. We would certainly ask harder questions (where's the proof of WMDs, what does this have to do with 9/11?, haven't you actually been planning this war for years?, what's the exit strategy?, what will the cost be?, how many casualties are you willing to accept?, etc) before we gave our leaders a blank check to use our finite military resources to achieve ill-defined political goals.

We'd actually take the business of war seriously... which we do not do now.

That is the point Rep. Rangel is trying to make here.

But the media and Rangel's denouncers will never try to see that point, they will never paint the debate on those terms, so in the end I feel that Rangel shouldn't waste our time with this for a second time around.

Michelle Malkin laughs this off, stating "It's a fitting symbol of what Democrat rule in Congress will be the next two years: A worthless, cynical expenditure of time and energy that accomplishes absolutely nothing."

As opposed to a fitting symbol of George Bush's rule in the last six years: a worthless, cynical expenditure of human lives, money, and international credibility that inflames terrorism worldwide, eh Michelle?

One can only hope that half the time devoted to this will also be devoted to the real Democratic agenda-

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi said Monday her new Democratic majority will extend a hand to Republicans in moving the agenda of relieving the "middle-class squeeze." She said restoring the military draft will not be part of that agenda when Democrats take over the House in January.

Pelosi, following a strategy meeting with the next House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said she will meet with incoming House Minority Leader John Boehner and "we'll find our common ground for the American people."

"The principle of civility and respect for minority participation in this House is something we promised the American people. It's the right thing to do," she said.

Pelosi and Hoyer repeated that in the first 100 legislative hours of the new Congress that convenes in January, they will try to pass bills that directly affect the pocketbooks of working-class and middle-class people, including raising the minimum wage, cutting interest rates for student loans and allowing the Medicare program to negotiate lower drug prices.

Other top priorities for January are lobbying reform, implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and rolling back subsidies to the oil industry...

Important issues, all of these. But as sexy and headline-grabbing as the draft? Nope. So they stay buried.

Finally comes news that "The Republican strategy [through 2008] is not only to undermine Mrs Pelosi's control of the House but also to associate her in voters' minds with Senator Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination." How bipartisan of them. Pundits, you know how to proceed.