Yesterday, Rep. Charles Rangel announced that he was going to introduce legislation to reinstate the draft when democrats take over Congress in 2007. Here is what Rangel said on Face the Nation as reported by the Reuters:
“If we’re going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can’t do that without a draft,” he said.
Rangel, who opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, also said he did not think the United States would have invaded Iraq if the children of members of Congress were sent to fight. He has said the U.S. fighting force is comprised disproportionately of people from low-income families and minorities.
The story has been repeated hundreds of times since he made his bogus announcement yesterday.
Today the AP reported that the Democratic leadership has no intention of supporting Rangel’s legislation:
Pelosi said restoring the draft will not be on that list and was not something she supported.
“The speaker and I discussed scheduling and it did not include that,” Hoyer added.
Incoming Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., caused a stir by repeating a long-held position that a draft is the best way to ensure that all levels of society are represented in the military.
Obviously, after the number of times that this story has been told and retold over the last 24 hours the media has no intention of correcting Rangel’s assertions that our soldiers come from “low income families”. Here’s the truth from Military News:
Military recruits mirror the U.S. population and are solidly middle class, Carr said. He cited a recent Heritage Foundation report that shows most recruits come from middle-class families, rather than poorer or wealthier ones. Patterns in recent years reinforce this trend, showing a slight dip in recruits from lower socioeconomic groups and a slight increase from upper-class groups, Carr said.
If Rangel does get his draft we may also see more soldiers coming from our inner cities:
Inner cities are actually the most underrepresented area among new recruits, Carr said. Both suburban and rural areas are overrepresented, he said.
Is this really what Rangel wants?
I doubt it!
Isn’t it about time the media quits repeating this trashtalk from Charles Rangel?
Betsy Newmark has more information on the demographics of our military.