On February 15th 2013
New York Representative Charles Rangel entered H.R.747 and H.R.748 to be
considered by Congress. This Bill would, if approved, would require all persons in
the United States between the ages of 18 to 25 to perform National service as a
member of the uniformed service or as a civilian in Federal, State, or Local
government.
The National Universal Service Act
(H.R 747), also known as the "draft" bill, would require 30 million
people in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25 to perform two years
of national service in either the armed services or in civilian life. It would
build upon the community service infrastructure already in place such as the
Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, as well as local initiatives such as NYC Serve. The
National Universal Service Act was first introduced in 2003 at the height of
protest against going to war with Iraq, and was reintroduced in 2006, 2007,
2010, and 2011.
Rangel's All American Selective
Service Act (H.R. 748) would require women to enroll in the Selective Service
System, which would double the number of registrants. The current law requires
only men ages 18 to 25 to register, and there are approximately 13.5 million in
the registry.
"Now that women can serve in
combat they should register for the Selective Service alongside their male
counterparts," said Rangel. "Reinstating the draft and requiring
women to register for the Selective Service would compel the American public to
have a stake in the wars we fight as a nation. We must question why and how we
go to war, and who decides to send our men and women into harm's way."
Charles Rangel
I see where Rangel is coming from;
if more people were "forced into service" it would make them think
twice about supporting a war. But think about this, the American people do not
have a say in if we as a Nation go to war, that is left to those we call our
representatives.
What I purpose is this; we create a bill that
would force all House of Representative members and Senate members’ children
18-25 to serve in active conflict zones for a minimum of two years. It would
follow the same premise, if they had to think of their children dying in a
conflict in which they have created, advanced or entered into, we quite
possibly would have less military intervention that leads to conflicts and
death of innocent people.
I don't want to force anyone into
service as I see it as a form of slavery. But what this could do is turn the
attention away from the distraction of using the citizens as cannon fodder
until they become irate enough to demand less military intervention and instead
turns the attention to those that have the most direct influence and actual vote
and voice in the intervention and eventual wars and conflicts they create.
As always this is just my take on this issue and I am sure that some of you will disagree with my assessment on this, but what I want to say is this, if you wholeheartedly subscribe to Rangel's idea for these two bills I would suggest that you take a hard look at your family and decide which ones you can live without.Because if passed it is almost a certainty that one or more of your children will serve and die under this forced service in a war or conflict created by those whose children are safe and sound in their beds at night.
#LiveFree
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It was 1984 when I was taken to register for the draft; I had mixed emotions as an 18 year old male.
ReplyDeleteThe first question I have as I truly don’t know the answer to is, does the two bills listed here exempt members of congress family from being part of this so called draft?
I am not a fan of the draft however I think your proposal to require members of congress family to be sent into combat would not really affect the process. It didn’t when the draft was in effect in the past.
I understand that back then some members were able to give their kids easy non-combat jobs in the military but so were a lot of normal folks who served. So saying they got the easy jobs is not enough to change the fact they served.
I don’t think we should be forcing anybody to serve let along fight in combat for any reason. Having an all-volunteer military is the single best way to have solders to stand up and fight for you.
The sentiment that if your kids are forced to server they would be more engaged or inclined to think about it more is just a false hope. Young adults even in the face of a draft will for the most part give no real thought to it until deployed. It’s just the nature of being that age, I was that age and the draft was real and me and my friends went down sighed all the paper work and moved on to other things, more important things, like where to find some cheap beer and who is having a party this weekend. Its reality and it’s why it’s so easy to pick that age group.
We need to make sure the bills are defeated so our kids are not forced to server. Maybe instead of having congress decide if we go to war, we should put it to a public vote and let the people decide if it’s worth it.
I really don’t have the answer as to the best way to make that kind of decision. But forcing people to fight is not the answer.