Video: Rangel says men join the army
only if they can’t have “a decent career”
Allahpundit

Hence his support for the draft. If even our volunteers are there involuntarily, why shouldn’t everyone be?

[video link]

I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.

This won’t get as much attention as what Lurch said (or was understood to have said) a few weeks ago. Rangel’s neither as prominent nor as unlikeable as Kerry, nor do vets bear him a grudge the way they do Waffles for his Winter Soldier testimony. But they’re both talking out of the same ass.  ...

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Glenn Reynolds:

Karl Rove's prayer: Get this guy on TV as much as possible!

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Charlie Rangel- Another condescending jackass
"Uncle Jimbo" Hanson

I realize I ruffled some feathers here when I agreed with Charlie Rangel about a draft. He was being a grandstanding, scumbag politician, I was serious and still am. That aside Charlie Rangel better steer clear of the military for a while. He has joined F John Kerry and for that matter far too much of the left in demeaning his betters who currently serve in the military. I am well aware that Charlie served in Korea as a young man, but instead of taking that experience as a positive that helped an uneducated loser like him become an educated loser and member of Congress, I repeat myself, he decided that anyone who chooses the noble goal of keeping all of us safe is an inferior who couldn't compete in the rarefied air he breathes in DC. I'll let him hang himself. ...

[...]

I guess it's inconceivable to Chuck that there are actually people who can look at the world see the dangers we face and consciously choose to meet that threat so others don't have to. He also repeats the repeatedly debunked BS about the poor brown kids dying so W and Cheney can make money. What a world class jackass. Enjoy your two years in the sun you sanctimonious, s**thead, ...

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Michael Barone:

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.

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Can We Please See More of Charlie Rangel?
John Hinderaker

One of the problems of being part of the minority for twelve years is that not many people pay attention to you. Then, when the spotlight finally seeks you out, you may be ill-prepared to act like part of the mainstream. Thus, Charlie Rangel, seemingly (and inexplicably) unaware of the brouhaha over John Kerry's insulting of the troops, repeated the insult today on Fox News Sunday. You really have to see this to believe it:

Better yet, Rangel promises hearings that will prove that American soldiers are dumb, ill-educated and otherwise unemployable! I can't wait.

Rangel is a fool, but it's possible to get away with foolishness. It's foolishness plus arrogance that is a deadly combination. ...

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Stuck Again
(Drill Sgt. Bleu U.S. Army ret.)

I’ll be gottdamned if yet another of our esteemed elected representatives hasn’t put us soldjurs in our place.

I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq. (Emphasis mine)

I beg to differ with the sumbitch and will in a gottdamned New York minute bet my life that many, many of our young men and women would indeed be in Iraq for nothin’ more than to fight for freedom, for Mr. Rangel’s right to run his gottdamned mouth, and believe me, most of ‘em could damn well get good payin’ jobs just about anywhere outside of the Army. Kiss my ass Charlie.

I am sick and fuckin’ tired of hearin’ about how stupid and stuck our soldjurs are when I know gottdamned well that our future is in the best hands this nation has to offer. I can’t help but wonder when inthehell the idiots on Capitol Hill are goin’ to stop usin’ our soldjurs for political gains!

Well, I’m bettin’ my life Mr. Rangel, ante the fuck up Congressman! 

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We Gotta Draft 'Em Because They're So Dumb
Ed Morrissey

Charles Rangel has decided to take up where John Kerry left off, only this time he's not kidding about our military men and women being a collection of lazy dolts. The proposed chairman of the House Ways and Means committee and therefore one of the most powerful Democratic leaders in Congress told Fox News that only those with no options for a decent career would enlist in the military. Here's the video from Power Line:

[see above]

Rangel has insisted that we restart the draft to fill the gaping enlistment shortfall in military recruiting ever since the war in Iraq began, as well as the staggering drop in re-enlistment rates. Oh, wait ... never mind. I guess it's to solve the overrepresentation of the poor and urban in the military. Oh, wait ... never mind.

I guess it's just to feed the Left's bigotry about the military. Bingo! This is just another method of infantilizing soldiers and sailors. Their efforts to cast them as children pushed into the service by their parents didn't work, so now Rangel wants to pick up Kerry's notion that they have little choice but to join the military through lack of other economic options, a fallacy that has been repeatedly disproved. It's all part of the Left's overarching philosophy that choice really doesn't exist for individuals, and therefore government exists to make all the choices for the citizenry. It's another form of victimology, and a rather offensive form at that. ...

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2006.11.26.17:59

Who exactly is lacking a connection to our armed forces?
Matthew "Froggy" Heidt

Rep. Charles Rangel is no doubt sincere when he says that,

"No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq."

But he could not be more wrong. His impetus for proposing the draft he says is to shift the burden of defending America from the poor, minority community who are economically pressed into service to the rich, white community which has been shirking its duty and using the black man as cannon fodder to line whitey’s pockets. His basis for this policy change is also demonstrably false, but if he is sincere in this contention then I would have to question his sanity.

I was having a conversation with my mother this weekend about how it is that in school, girls are now catered to and boys are expected to conform behaviorally to what is essentially a female standard. It seems to me that the principle behind this mindset has, to a great extent, pervaded the society at large and the consequences of it can be seen in various places across the nation. The rise of the metrosexual man and more importantly the homosexual to a position of faddish stature in pop culture, the over representation of women in college, and the degradation of the volunteer soldier to the position of victim are some of the more obvious consequences of this philosophy in action. The philosophy of which I speak is, of course, liberalism and it is no surprise that a Democrat controlled Congress having given birth to these notions would go out of its way to promote them.

But there is a difference between a boy and a girl, a man and a woman, a warrior and a civilian. These differences do not disappear according to who is empowered in Congress or in the media driven culture, but the tolerance for the existence of warriors has shifted to some extent. The truth is that military service as a career is, for many, an extraordinarily fulfilling one and a place where the innate virtues of a man are completely validated. In the same way, a woman’s innate virtues are completely validated by nurturing children either as a mother or as a teacher. There are no politics in this observation, merely a statement of facts established over the past 10,000 years of human history.

Speaking as a Navy SEAL, ...

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Ballistic
Blackfive

"Suppose you were an idiot ... and suppose you were a member of Congress... but I repeat myself."- Mark Twain

Representative Charlie Rangel "I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it."

As Jimbo said in a comment on Froggy's post, there simply is nothing like a pissed off Navy SEAL ripping on an asshat like Charlie Rangel.  See post below.

I just can't let Rangel's words stand.

Face it, veterans, active duty soldiers, reservists and guardsmen, Charlie Rangel just delivered the most heinous of insults - that you do not serve because of a sense of honor or duty or sacrifice or cause or brotherhood, but because you simply lacked options.  You serve because you weren't good enough to do something else.

Daniel Unger wrote this letter on September 12th, 2001, about why he wanted to fight and defend his country.  He died just a few years later protecting Iraqi civilians during an insurgent mortar attack.

Chris Adlesperger left college to enlist in the Marines.  He wanted to be a warrior.  In one engagement, he was nominated for the Medal of Honor.  He was killed a month later leading a fireteam into an insurgent stronghold.

Specialist Nathaniel Aguirre wanted to serve his country (he didn't want to wait four years to finish college and then go in as an officer), and, as a medic, was saving lives in the middle of an ambush when he was killed.

Do I need to keep going?  Those are just three of the most recent heroes honored here.  None of them were high school drop outs living on the streets who couldn't get a job as a fry cook at Harold's Chicken Shack #46 (btw, fry cook is an honorable job, but I had to pick something).  The judge did not give them a choice of go to war or go to jail.

Representative Charles Rangel dishonors their memory.  Dishonors what they fought for.  He dishonors my service, my soldiers, my friends who died fighting this war.   ...

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Rangel & The Democrats Just Don’t Understand Those Who Serve
Curt (Flopping Aces)

First we have Democrat Charlie Rangel tell a CNN audience that, well, I’m not sure what he is trying to say here (because of his rambling on and on and on) except maybe that because the military runs ads on TV this proves that people are not joining to serve their country, rather they are joining for the thrill. (h/t Hot Air)

(video link)

Then he tells a Fox News audience that the only people who would join the military is those with no chance at a “decent career”.

[video link]

And these people are who the Democrats choose to be in power? Wow!

It appears that Kerry and his fellow elitists, such as Rangel, can’t fathom why anyone would volunteer to join a military to fight what they think is a “illegitimate” war so they make excuses. Its all because of the ads, or the money, or because they cant find any other job. Don’t you know the military is mostly comprised of the poor?

Of course nothing could be further from the truth: ...

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American Legion to Congressman Rangel: Apologize Now (H/T)

WASHINGTON, November 27, 2006  -  The National Commander of The American Legion called on Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) to apologize for suggesting that American troops would not choose to fight in Iraq if they had other employment options.

“Our military is the most skilled, best-trained all-volunteer force on the planet,” said National Commander Paul A. Morin. “Like that recently espoused by Sen. John Kerry, Congressman Rangel’s view of our troops couldn’t be further from the truth and is possibly skewed by his political opposition to the war in Iraq.” ...

...“I’m not sure I understand what is unfair about letting adults make their own career choices,” Morin said as he visited troops in Korea this week. “Troops serving today have a higher education level than the overall population. Why another member of Congress is insulting our troops’ commitment and education level is beyond me.”

Morin said The American Legion applauds and appreciates the great sacrifices of those who serve - many of whom have put civilian careers aside, college on hold or given up high paying jobs to enlist.
More and more troops say it’s duty and honor before college fund that motivated them to join. Recruiting numbers have been met this year, but more importantly, servicemembers are reenlisting so retention within the armed forces is great, Morin explained. Not everyone holds the view that we should wait to be attacked again as a nation.

“These brave men and women lay it on the line every day for each and every one of us, for which I am very grateful,” Morin said. “Their selfless commitment for the betterment of our world from radical extremists is beyond commendable. It’s time for members of Congress to stop insulting our troops.

“While The American Legion shares the congressman’s appreciation for education, the troops in Iraq represent the most sophisticated, technologically superior military that the world has ever seen,” Morin said. “I call on Congressman Rangel to not only apologize to our troops but to also fight for pay increases and make significant improvements to the current GI Bill - reserves and guard included, as he prepares for a party chairmanship in the 110th Congress.” ...