Something recently came to my attention, and perhaps some of our readers are aware of it as well. About a week ago I was relaxing at home with a glass of red wine, after a long day at work. Although I’m sure there must have been some delectable trash on TV – don’t scoff, I know you all have your guilty pleasures when it comes to week-night television – but I decided to do something good for myself, so I turned on CNN. When this story came on, I nearly spit my $3.99 merlot allover my fake leather couch!!!!!!!!

Democratic Congressman Charles Rangle from New York wants to reinstate the draft. Hold on, let’s let that marinate for a second. The draft, the draft, didn’t that go kinda sour for us the last time?

That is something Rangle knows about first-hand. He’s a Korean War vet, and a critic of Bush’s handling of the Iraq War. Rangle has suggested reinstating the draft in the past as a way of putting the President and Republican Congress on the spot. He says his goal in calling for a reinstatement of the draft is to focus the public.

People like William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense, agree with Rangle’s underlying motives. Cohen has made statements about the need for parents to get “heartburn” when they think about what our country is up to overseas. He says that we all need to ask ourselves exactly what we are committing someone else’s family member to do when we send our soldiers off to war. I definitely agree with this angle of the argument, but I don’t really feel comfortable with the idea of a draft.

There are a lot of military experts who say that it is a bad idea to mess with the system during a time of military action, like now. They say that to integrate untrained draftees with a trained force would be distracting, and ultimately a setback. 

As scary as the idea of reinstating the draft is, Rangle’s message has accomplished its purpose for me.  I am having the conversation, and I want to hear from everyone else too! Apparently, one of Rangle’s main objectives is to insight the country to have the conversation. As he explains, when we say that X and X are a threat to us, then we all have to be willing to put up our fists and fight.

What’s your verdict on all this?