Read my lips: NO NEW DRAFT!

George W. keeps saying it in one shape or another: “No, we’re not going — we don’t need the draft. Look, the all-volunteer army is working. I know Senator McCain and I agree on this issue for certain, the all-volunteer army works.” But the Democrats—up to an including John Kerry—keep pumping out the claim that if Bush is reelected he WILL reinstate the draft. Here's a couple of particularly good takes on this issue; first, Joanne Jacobs in the St Louis Post-Dispatch:

“Uncle Sam doesn't want my 23-year-old daughter or my 17-year-old nephew either. Not as draftees. A modern military has little use for the unskilled and the unwilling.

Yet the draft rumor is stalking the political landscape like a particularly persistent zombie. It just won't stay dead.” Read On...

And this from Bruce Chapman, long-time advocate of a volunteer military:

“ 'The most potent campaign rumor of the year is the web-induced claim that if re-elected Bush President will reinstitute the draft,' says Bruce Chapman, president of the Discovery Institute and a pioneer in the 1960s movement to institute an all-volunteer military. 'It's potent, but it is also false.'

'Whether the Kerry camp originated the story or simply followed it, the Democratic presidential candidate has employed it repeatedly in speeches to sway college-age voters,' adds Chapman. 'and MTV and Rock-the-Vote have highlighted the issue continuously.' ” Read On...

Spreading false rumors among the young is one of oldest and most long-standing Democratic ploys and even though I disagree with many of my own party's stances, this type of activity ensures my continuing tenure as a Republican. When I was a little kid, in 1960 and in 1964 and again in 1968, rumors ran rampant in elementary schools that whoever the Republican candidate was, he WOULD MAKE KIDS GO TO SCHOOL ON SATURDAY. They have a name for people who prey on children, and that's all this is.

By the way kids: BUSH WILL NOT MAKE YOU GO TO SCHOOL ON SATURDAY. Nor will he reinstate the draft.

Disclaimer: I am not a Bush partisan. My opinion of this election mirrors one I saw in an editorial cartoon: “Two hundred and forty million people and these two are the best we could come up with?” My position is the same as that held in the 19th century Royal Navy as they shook the weevils from their hardtack: “Always pick the lesser of two weevils.” I just think Kerry is a bigger weevil.

Posted by Ray Trygstad | Category: Rant | 04:34 PM