Spring Break
Congressman proposes mandatory draft
Saja Hindi
Technician
According to John Mogray, a senior in civil engineering, by proposing a draft, Rangel is trying to attract negative attention to the war and is succeeding.
"The last thing Rep. Rangel wants is the draft, and the suggestion of it is politically motivated," Mogray said.
Mogray said he was in Iraq for seven months. He served in the Marine Corps for four years and is in the reserves.
"From seeing the way the military works, it could completely destroy the way the morale and the fighting effectiveness of our current military force [works]," he said.
Mogray said he doesn't think the draft will ever be reinstated and any serious talk of it is "absurd."
"If our society reaches the point where you have to force people to protect us, then we don't deserve the things that we have," Mogray said.
Rangel, in a press release, said he doesn't expect his bill to pass, but military service should be a "shared sacrifice" and that a draft would ensure that people from every economic group participate.
"Right now the only people being asked to sacrifice in any way are those men and women who, with limited options, chose military service and now find themselves in harm's way in Iraq," he said.
Dennis Daley, a political science professor, said he doesn't think the proposal will pass either.
"For a lot of people, politically, it is associated with the unsuccessful war in Vietnam," he said.
According to Rangel's proposal, the draft would not only be a military draft but there would also be an "alternative national civilian service," where those drafted would give back to the government domestically. The only exceptions to the draft would be for health or conscience reasons.
Daley said it will be hard to administer the draft by deciding who goes to the military and who does domestic service. The government, he said, will not know what to do with the numbers of people who would be listed under the draft.
"The coordination of it would probably fall apart," Daley said.
According to Daley, the reinstatement of the draft would not deter politicians from going to war as Rangel hopes.
"If they're going to go to war, they're going to go to war," he said.
But Kimberly Byrnes, graduate teaching assistant of political science and public administration, said she disagreed.
"[The politicians] would really have to answer to the public as far as their decisions go," she said.
Byrnes said she too, doesn't see the bill as ever passing.
"In other countries, particularly in European countries, you have to serve in the military or do some kind of service for a couple of years when you get out of college," she said. "I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I just don't see it ever happening here."
Mogray said despite the fact that he agrees with the U.S.'s reasons for going to war, he does not think such a bill will receive support.
"I don't think anything that's mandatory would receive support," he said.
However, he did say he feels everyone should experience some sort of government service out of obligation for their country.
"But they should want to do it," he said. "They shouldn't be forced to do it."
Rangel, in the press release, stated that those in the military are of minority and poor families.
"As we see who are the troops coming home wounded and killed, I challenge anyone to tell me that the wealthiest have not been excluded from that roll call," he said.
Mogray said he does not agree with this perception and uses himself as an example because he's white and does not come from a lower class family, yet he voluntarily joined the military for adventure and discipline.
Both Byrnes and Daley said there would be opposition from college students if the draft were reinstated because it does not exempt them from it.
"The war in Vietnam wasn't that big of an issue until Lyndon Johnson began to draft college students," Daley said.
He said it depends on the nation's support for the war, because people were waiting to get drafted to fight in World War II.
Byrnes said the "typical intellectual" college student, from her experiences, has been more liberal and against the Iraq war. She said reinstating the draft would cause college students to oppose the war even more.
Meghan Gregoire, a junior in Spanish and international studies, is an opponent of the war and any reinstatement of the draft.
"I don't like the idea of a draft. There are a lot of volunteers," she said. "I understand the idea behind it because a lot of lower class people go to the military, so I understand it in that sense, but still [I would not support it]," she said.
Gregoire said even if she supported the war, she would not support a draft.
"Personally, I wouldn't want to get drafted or have my loved ones get drafted," she said.