01 Nov 2004 Liberals Have Nothing to Offer But Lies and Fear, by Mychal Massie
Liberals have begun accusing President Bush of having a secret plan to call up more National Guard and Reserve forces after the election, and they are planting the idea that it is a precursor to a renewed draft.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Rodney refutes the initial claim, explaining, “There is no force increase that is expected.” Quite simply, the Army is rotating the same number of soldiers into Iraq that will be leaving over the next six months. Additionally, the units expected to be mobilized for this rotation already have been notified.
A spokesman for the President called this a “conspiracy theory” that is “completely irresponsible.” I see it as a purposeful distortion of the truth, but not out of character for most liberals these days.
I believe these assertions are a plan to scare people into thinking they or their loved ones will be drafted, and marched off to fight and die in Iraq. It’s a misrepresentation of what’s going on over there, and the most brazen attempt yet to politicize our national security policy.
In Columbia, South Carolina, the Associated Press reported that the state Democrat Party effort to sign up new voters mixed images of a military draft notice with a voter registration form, calling on people to make a choice between the two. The unambiguous message being: Support the President and you’ll likely see a new draft.
While visiting high school students in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Democrat National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe brazenly politicked about the draft. According to local resident Martin Cameron: “He speculated about the draft. He wasn’t asked about it. He brought it out, implanting fear.”
There is some truth to draft rumors, but it’s not what you think. Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) – liberal lawmakers – are responsible for the legislation to reinstating the draft that often is mentioned as the “smoking gun.” Their bills were introduced in January of 2003, and saw little movement until Republican leaders in the House recently brought Rangel’s bill up for a vote to make the liberals put up or shut up. When faced with having to actually vote for a draft rather than demagogue over it, Rangel voted against his own bill.
James Jay Carafano, a 25-year veteran of the armed forces and a senior research fellow in defense and homeland security at The Heritage Foundation, told me: “Any official is horrified at the very suggestion” of a renewed draft. In his article “Draft Reinstatement is a Bad Idea,” he wrote, “Nearly every expert who studies the [draft vs. volunteer army] issue concludes that all-volunteer-or professional militaries perform more efficiently, more bravely and with less corruption and breakdowns than conscripts.”
During our conversation, he added: “Conscription defies America’s own traditions – a draft military is problematic, because the men and women have short service tours, then leave. They come with no [military] skills and the cost of retraining new draftees every two years further impacts a military that has suffered a decade of inadequate funding.”
But that notwithstanding, liberals are ratcheting up the rhetoric of suggestive lies and scurrilous innuendo to scare the public and gain support.
Americans still support the Bush Administration’s strategy in the war on terror and the liberation of Iraq. So, when all else fails, the liberals seem willing to resort to scare tactics. The threat of a draft, it is obviously presumed, will resonate with the MTV/college crowd being brainwashed by largely insurgent professors teaching their own jaundiced political positions. It will also resonate among young blacks who have been inculcated from birth to believe conservatives such as those in the current White House are evil white men out to suppress them. And women.
They are returning to the familiar and well-worn pages of the liberal playbook, under the topic how to make people afraid and incite hatred by the Satanic use of lies, half-truths, fear mongering and race-baiting.