Montel: Bring Back The Draft (AUDIO)

The Draft?

What a Great Idea !

And here's another, equally Great Idea: let's bring back Slavery.

Montel can go work in the fields for no pay. How's that?

What, bad idea? I don't know why. After all The Draft IS slavery.

Men with guns tell you that you either work for them and do what you're told, or you get thrown in prison and end up on a chain gang.

If The Draft is good, then Slavery must be good also.

Look, I want America out of this war as much as anyone who can talk without spitting, but advocating the Draft is insanity.

You want to end the War? Get your a$$ out there and demonstrate against it.

Put on your uniform, and preach against the War on street corners.

Get the stories on wounded veterans front and center.

Do an expose´ on how many amputees Bush's War created.

MAKE people see this is wrong.

But make one move toward that slave collar buddy, and YOU'LL be wearing it.

I love how the right wingers will always say that it is the elete that become the officers,even though the lower income enlist. I think this rather proves our point about the different classes, if it were true. Officers don't enlist they go to school usually on a ROTC scholorship or even the 4 service school which put the high points on achademics and desire to be there. To me it is pretty obvious that there are a fair amount in this country that want a free ride with no responsibilities while other fight their battles for them. I also have found this not just in relation to the military.

Finally the majority of the American people elect representatives who can do this with a majority vote. Let's hope it is done soon so all can share in the "glory" of being the world's policeman. I also agree women should be drafted.

So Bill and Montel have decided to adopt the already proven-to-be-a-failure Charlie Rangel strategy of trying to scare the majority of Congress and mainstream America into ending the bipartisan predatory world policeman foreign policy by threating to enslave much more of the young into mandatory military service. It won't work as long as the majority of American voters continue to re-elect the political duopoly to federal office.

Perhaps the current majority of voluntary enlistees come from less-than-middle class economic backgrounds, but the majority of officers and officer school candidates come from middle class backgrounds and up. So much for "only the poor join the military".

Many nations exercise military conscription and mandatory national civilian service, but that doesn't make it any less of a human rights violation anymore than mob voter rule does in relation to denying gays equal rights under the law in relation to marriage, etc.

True progressives reject slavery, whether it be governmental or private. And yes, that includes jury "duty". Most cases in European nations are tried by three judge panels.

I too am in favor of bringing back the draft. It would first of all keep our war hawks from sending our young off to war when their friends child or grandcild might have to go. Being a Draft Board Member in a heavely republican state it would make it so they could talk the talk and walk the walk. Yes the boards are stil in place and we still meet and still practice. we are tasked to have the first draftee into basic training in just a little over a month. Right now they are not walking the walk. Again it is time to bring back conscription if we are going to be the worlds policeman.

Draft Bush, Cheney and Rove and make them permanent Latrine Orderlies!
Tom Nass
5th marine Division - WWII

@ionicat81

While I understand your resistance to the draft, you seem to suggest that it's worse in terms of who ends up being sent to fight than the draft. However, look at who is targeted for recruiting and who ends up enlisting. It is the poor, the people who can't find jobs in this economy. The economic collapse has been the best thing to happen to military recruiting that could have happened. Before then, all the branches were having trouble meeting their recruitment targets...after all, who in their right mind wants to go to Iraq or Afghanistan for tour after tour, with a decent probability of coming home dead or maimed? But once the economy crashed, there were a lot of desperate unemployed people, and any job, even one that could get you killed, suddenly looked good.

A draft is the best way for the nation to put the true cost of war in front of the voters. As long as it's volunteers that are going to fight and die, that cost is, in some respects, hidden. It's the poor that bear the highest cost, and the poor have always been invisible in American politics. On the other hand, if you had a draft, with deferrments much more limited than Vietnam, where chickenhawks like Cheney could get 5 of them just because they were too busy to be bothered, then suddenly the burden would become more evenly distributed. How long would the war go on if Mitt Romney's strapping young sons all got sent to Afghanistan, or Liz Cheney got sent to patrol a neighborhood in Baghdad?

P.S. In many ways, I feel that it was the draft that was a big factor that helped to end the Vietnam war. There was a tipping point where families refused to hand up their sons and daughters to our government to fight a war that made no sense. Another factor that helped end the Vietnam war, was simply that we saw the suffering on the nightly news. Now we're having a sanitized war where the American public does not see, hear or feel the suffering of not only our soliders, but the innocent people in the Middle East caught up in the death and destruction. Let's bring all our soldiers home and re-build this country instead.

I agree with Bill Moyers, and I support bringing back the draft. However, Jeremy Scahill (the Blackwater author) said on one of Bill Moyers' program, that we now have more paid soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan than we have enlisted soldiers. Bringing back the draft might possibly increase our paid military to the point where we become a country who simply pays non-enlisted soldiers to do our bidding abroad. It seems to me that that would make matters even worse. On another note, why is it that in the discussion about the cost concerns of reforming health care that the cost of the war doesn't come up in the same conversation. The war is what is killing us financially, not the "threat" of health care reform.

I totally dont agree! This sounded like conservative rhetoric to me! I was quite shocked! The draft was taken away for a reason, that reason being that the majority of people felt it was wrong and people were MADE to go fight in wars that had nothing to do with them. Let`s get serious here. We are not fighting for freedom. We are fighting to keep the rich richer so that is why most educated people who know this will NEVER fight in a war for this country. I will NEVER fight to keep the military industrial complex going. We will always be in a war as long as war is a business and working class people die for the wealthy. It`s all just a strategic chess game to them and we are the pawns. So unfortunately, that means that the poor, un-educated have to fight in these wars. If only they knew the truth and said NO! were not fighting YOUR war, we are not going to kill poor people when we are poor people ourselves. War is wrong and its almost never justifiable when innocent women are raped and killed and innocent children are brutally murdered....for WHAT? How about we evolve to a more gentler species who actually friggen listens to each other ? But I know its more complicated than that because the almighty dollar is involved. Lets wake the hell up people!! A draft will not solve anything and Im appalled that anyone would suggest that. It seemed to me like Moyers was being sarcastic.

I totally agree. This is the only way to get the American people outraged. Bring back the draft for men and women. Brenda Raffiani