Great !
Anything to decentralize arrogant elitism of that foreign appendage called "Washington DC". These happy executives manage 40% of the GDP and plan preemptive planetary aggression... but their own families represent 1/1000th % of the troops.
And, the Peace Corps - was kicked out of Russia last month.
So, Rall's right for more reasons than he knows - it's time to renew its leadership and expand its scope to other non-combatant countries hosting 800 military bases around the world. Some kind of Youth Service idea is a such an expansion. It would certainly help, and cost less if there were even a minor reduction in the $120b/year military occupation costs.
The Draft itself is an excellent idea, and deeply feared by the Administration for several reasons. Besides the votes it would cost, and caution in warmaking, as Rall and Rangel say, it puts the decision-makers in the "Chickenhawk" box.
Much more important IMO, as Rumsfeld does NOT say, it dilutes the standing Preatorian Guard military, which reports exclusively to the Executive Branch, and which the Founders feared tends to produce totalitarianism.
This is exactly the sort of hubris we see daily from this administration, backed by exclusive control of history's greatest military, cloaked in unprecedented secrecy, and a "F* You" attitude to both the American people and the rest of the world. Why should they care? They figure they own all the levers of power. It's only natural they would jealously guard those levers from any participation from the citizen rabble in any of their playgrounds: Washington, the military, the rest of the world.
Message from Washington: "Just pay your taxes, go back in your house, shut up, and watch tv. If we want your opinion, we'll give it to you." |
