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...
Comments
Why don't you take a breather? Rejoin the country.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112416502
I'm not sure what you mean by "more radical." I have always been a very open-minded, independent-thinking American -- if that's radical, then so be it; however, I dislike being labeled as a "Bircher" just because I've posted an intriguing speech of Welch's from 50+ years ago. It's thought-provoking and, given the current state of affairs in DC, worth revisiting.
I'm sure I'm about to sound like the old witticism, "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're NOT out to get you" but I have to say that, even though some of his ideas and some of his accusations were kooky and over-the-top, his theories also made sense of some disturbing incongruities. And again, I'll stress that those incongruities still exist and the "old" theories of the JBS folks are starting to be embraced again by many Americans MUCH younger than I.
I'm a Conservative of the old school -- "paleoconservative" I think they're branding us now. The framers of our Constitution knew what they were doing and did it with great foresight and intellect. Our form of government was well-considered and born of lessons learned from history. Communism in any form is completely unAmerican and I loathe even the slightest move toward it, including when W did it.
Here's an interesting read for you, Anonymous. It's the Conservative tale of how Welch was successfully marginalized when it was determined that we could not acknowledge our own kook fringe. Goldwater's no Saul Alinsky but he was a smart cookie. ;o)
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/goldwater—the-john-birch-society—and-me-11248