US Representative, Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is at it again. Rangel's prescription for fixing the ills we're feeling in Iraq is a draft . I have very mixed feelings about this. Conscription is conscription no matter what you choose to label it. Is that appropriate in a free country? On the flip side of this coin, I've often thought that compulsory national service would be a great idea for American kids right out of high school. It might have been a better start for me than learning to down beer at a Liberal Arts university! Two years in the service might give kids time to think about their future, learn higher levels of responsibility, and begin to take life more seriously. There are many countries who require some level of mandatory military service: Belarus, Chile, China, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, Iran, Lebanon, our neighbor Mexico, and our old buddy Germany, to name a few. Gee, now that I look at that partial list... aren't many of those countries Socialist or at battl...
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While it is a mistake to think of this current war as a traditional nation-state to nation-state conflict, there are far too many similarities between our current war and that of WWII to simply brush them off. The difference this time is that our enemy operates in MANY countries and allies themselves with many fascist rulers. Even given that tremendous difference, there are still similarities that I think you brush off very conveniently.
Americans were attacked time and time again from the late 1970s up until the attacks on 9/11/01. We drop a few bombs and fled. We negotiated with terrorist states via the UN. We turned a blind eye on the declaration of war that came right from bin Laden's own mouth. Chamberlain would have been proud... except the part where we pretended to take action via the few ineffective bombs we dropped.
If I follow your "logic" with regard to Iraq being a mistake, I have to remind you that the Germans did not attack us at Pearl Harbor; the Japanese did. So, why did we not simply bomb Japan and be done with it? I think it's obvious -- Americans saw the potential threat from Nazi Germany and the damage they were already doing to their part of the world. WWII had to be fought on multiple fronts just like this war against Islamofascism. To pretend otherwise is simply a Chamberlainesque approach to the nasty business at hand. Americans cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that Islamofascists are at work in multiple countries with multiple allies.
We did not ask for this war, it was brought right to our front doorstep. Granted, not by Hussein himself but by bin Laden and his followers with assistance from terrorist nation-states. The fact that Iraq had weapons that they seemed willing to share with Islamofascists to defeat America was not ignored. It was taken seriously, as it should have been. The fact that Iran has been arming Islamofascists for well over 30 years cannot be ignored either. I hope that Chamberlain is not elected in 2008 or we will be doing just what Baker and his buddies suggested. In the end, the farcical video could become reality. In that case, my friend, we will all certainly suffer for the resurrection of Chamberlain.
I cannot agree at all with your assessment that we have weakened our country in executing this war against Islamofascism. We have had no further attacks on our soil since 9/11/01. We were at our weakest while we were in denial. If anything, Americans are more alert to the very real threats we face now. Thank God. Like it or not, George W. Bush was not willing to turn a blind eye; he was willing to face this threat like no other president before him. He is definitely no Chamberlain.