Entries for November 21, 2006

Rep. Charles Rangel, now about to become a member of the majority party again after 12 years, has revived his proposal for a military draft. This is about as absurd a public-policy proposal as I can imagine. Contrary to Rangel's claims–talking points recycled from the Vietnam era, when we did have a draft–military recruits are not drawn predominantly from the lower economic ranks of society. Quite to the contrary, as a recent report from the Heritage Foundation makes clear, military recruits tend to come from above the national economic median. Here's my earlier post about the Heritage report. Moreover, when you take a look at the numbers, there is no need for a draft. In World War II, we were a nation of 130 million that needed a military of approximately 12 million–nearly 1 in 10 of the entire population. Today, we are a nation of 300 million that needs a military of, at most, about 3 million–1 in 100 persons in the entire population.