QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Our Military

(Each "Question of the Week," an idea which I gleaned from A Republic If You Can Keep It, will remain toward the top of the blog until the next question appears, typically for one week although a longer interval may elapse from time to time. The previous Questions of the Week are HERE. Please scroll down for recent postings)

From time to time, we hear that the military draft should be or needs to be reinstated. The following excerpt from this story about the issue comes from 2004, but you may find familiar information therein:

A Republican U.S. senator is calling for a return of the military draft so the cost of the Iraq operation could be borne by people of all economic strata.

Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said, "There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future."

Hagel, a member of the committee, says all Americans should be involved in the effort.

"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring the draft would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."

The senator also argued re-instituting the draft, which ended in the early '70s, would cause the burden of military service to be spread among all economic classes of people.

"Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower middle class," he claimed....

Read the rest.

In the past, U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) has also weighed in on the military draft, with a different line of reasoning:

Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 if the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has his way.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said...he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq.

"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said....

Read the rest.

CLICK HERE to read Rep. Rangel's H.R. 393: Universal National Service Act of 2007


QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Do you favor the military draft? Why or why not?