Fear Mongering - Round 592

No, I'm not talking about the real fear that we should be addressing, the fear that confronts us every day faced with a terrorist threat that has no moral qualms with assaulting civilian populations (read: children, babies, women, yeah even men, innocents all). Democrats would have us believe that the President and the entire Administration are fear mongering with regard to the terror threats. One only has to look to a small hamlet in Russia (Beslan) or a major European capital to see these fears are justified and that we should be ready for another attack.

No, this fear mongering is from the left, the MTV left, the left that would dig up the grave of every Vietnam Vet and "cry havoc" because of the possibility of a draft. According to an AP story the rumor of a post-election, post-Bush-victory draft has the House of Representatives, that whimsically august body, rushing to put down tracks on the legislative record. Someone is rumor mongering to the MTV "Rock the Vote" crowd that a Bush victory means a draft after election.

First, this is just plain silly. The fact that the House of Representatives would react in such knee-jerk fashion is disturbing. This is the point of that body: whim. Whims of the people finding their way to the floor of the lower house of our Federal Congress. Thankfully the upper house isn't react so quickly.

Second, the real source of this fear is a 22-month old proposal by a Democratic Representative, Rangel of NY, that calls for a mandatory draft. He argues that this would be more fair to the men and women of our Nation, instead of the poor and the disadvantaged fighting our wars for us, in Rangel's terms "class warfare" (or was that Marx? or Mao?). On that note, the assertion is not entirely true or accurate. As a volunteer to the US Army myself (don't ask), I take issue with this argument, and I know others would as well. There is merit to the debate, if we indeed are capable of a healthy, measured debate, about the values of mandatory conscription. My libertarian friends would say, "To hell with you." But there is something to be said for a draft--merits (and detractions) I will not fully explore here and now. But this proposal by Rep. Rangel is long-standing and comes from the Democratic Party.

Third, President Bush is the one reducing US troop commitments in Europe & Asia in the interest of slimming down our forces in areas where we really don't fit strategically anymore (Germany for one, not as much so for South Korea). So why would a President who is reducing the size of the military in other, non-Iraq, non-Afghan installations overseas, who is working to alter the rotations of troops in other creative ways, need to consider the draft an option?

Fourth, the Congress is the one that has to legislate a draft. If it happens, it will be the Congress's fault. To all of you Rock the Voters out there, this means that 535 men and women (no dummies I might add) would have to agree in a majority vote (a minimum of 218 in the House and 51 in the Senate) that such an idea is a good idea. It's not likely to happen in my lifetime unless Iran or North Korea decide to take a fight to one of our Allies (or to our Western coast, in the case of North Korea). So hold them responsible. Watch them: especially Rep. Rangel of NYC.

Fifth, this whole morass makes even less sense when you consider Rangel's telling everyone to vote against his own proposal now and is accusing the Administration of hypocrisy.

Fear "mongering" is fine with me, if fear mongering means being honest with ourselves, with the American public, about the real dangers that potentially confront us every day: in our trains, on our bridges, in our office buildings, on our planes, in our schools. If fear mongering means being irrational and irresponsible with the truth then I have a serious problem. The American people, yes, even us Gen-Xers and Gen-Wires, deserve better.