More liberal "logic".....
I Reject Your Stupid Facts
January 15th, 2009
And substitute my own.
NY Congressman Charlie Rangel is delighted to change the conversation from his ongoing ethical woes and once again engage in a bit of meaningless political kabuki:
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) likely will introduce his controversial legislation to reinstate the draft again this year, but he will wait until after the economic stimulus package is passed.
A decorated Korean War veteran and a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Rangel argues that the burden of fighting wars falls disproportionately on low-income people and that cost should be borne more broadly.
Alas, he argues that case contra-factually as the Heritage Foundation pointed out in 2003 and as was reinforced in a separate study in 2005:
According to the 2000 Census, the national median income per household in 1999 was $41,994 in 1999 dollars. By assigning each recruit the median 1999 household income for his hometown ZIP code, we calculated that the mean 1999 income for 1999 recruits before entering the military was $41,141 (in 1999 dollars). The mean 1999 income for 2003 recruits was $42,822 (in 1999 dollars). In other words, on average, recruits in 2003 were from wealthier neighborhoods than were recruits in 1999.
And:
DoD tracks “representativeness” - as Gilroy calls it - very closely. And representativeness can take a whole host of forms - race, education, social status, income, region and so on. “When you look at all of those, you find that the force is really quite representative of the country,” he said in a recent interview. “It mirrors the country in many of these. And where it doesn’t mirror America, it exceeds America.”
The data shows the force is more educated than the population at large. Servicemembers have high school diplomas or the general equivalency diploma. More servicemembers have some college than the typical 18- to 24-year-olds.
And when it comes to those doing the actual warfighting from within those ranks, the distinction is even starker:
The American troops likeliest to fight and die in a war against Iraq are disproportionately white, not black, military statistics show — contradicting a belief widely held since the early days of the Vietnam War.
In a little-publicized trend, black recruits have gravitated toward non-combat jobs that provide marketable skills for post-military careers, while white soldiers are over-represented in front-line combat forces.
Rangel’s real point - probably hidden for the last four years in one of his illegally owned rent-controlled apartments - is not that poor Americans are over-represented as that richer Americans are under-represented. This is nothing but ugly class-warfare masquerading as patriotism, and if the congressman gets his way it would serve make the US military simultaneously less employable in any potential crisis and less capable once deployed.
Maybe Rangel truly believes that a draft would make the country more secure. All he has to do is draw a long breath, and shut his eyes.
“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Lewis Carroll
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