I don't think Rep. Rangel is crazy but I do think that he and others who share his views are flat out wrong. The assertion that your government has some right to involuntary sacrifice your life on the altar of its aggressive military adventures in foreign countries is preposterous and immoral. The government has no right to stake any such involuntary claim on one's life whether the cause be for the military or some other form of national service. The idea that one's government has a moral right to dragoon its citizens into involuntary servitude is a notion that liberals and conservatives cling to without remorse or much reflection on the consequences.

Rep. Rangel's proposal smacks of of rank opportunism and bad thinking. What chiefly motivates here is his belief that if the draft is implemented again that eventually it will result in large numbers of Americans refusing to allow their sons and daughters to be sacrificed in foreign military adventures. I would prefer that Rep. Rangel walk a more difficult road and oppose on principle, as did Rep. Barbara Lee, granting our civilian leaders carte blanche authority to engage in military actions without expressly gaining Congressional approval.

Rep. Rangel wants to duck taking such a step by hiding under the cover of national service as if legally requiring American citizens to engage in community service projects is preferable to demanding that they under the threat of imprisonment pick up a gun. All of this emanates, however, from the same belief and impulse that one's life belongs to one's government or society and not to one's self. There is an implicit authoritarian streak at the bottom of this desire and it is never sated.

Our nation is at war because we specifically and wrongly, I believe, chose to be at war. What happened on September 11, 2001 was the act of a criminal gang, not a nation or a foreign government. More than 850,000 Iraqis have died as a result of our government's decision's to militarily invade and conquer a country that had nothing to do with the events of 9/11. Rep. Rangel was among those members of Congress who abdicated their responsibilities by not speaking out and opposing this atrocity. His call for reimposing the draft is as phony as a three dollar bill and is motivated by the same impulse to con and shirk his real responsibilities.