Rangel’s call for new military draft rebuffed

Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel’s latest call to quickly restart the military draft was shot down yesterday by incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party members, who said it will not be part of the Democrats’ legislative agenda.

New York’s Mr. Rangel periodically has urged a draft revival as a mechanism to criticize President Bush’s handling of military deployments in the war on terrorism. He renewed his call again on Sunday, saying on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “if we’re going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, send more troops to Iraq, we can’t do that without the draft. … I will be introducing that bill as soon as we start the new session.”

But Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, told reporters she does not favor the draft and has no plans to schedule a floor debate. And in the Senate, incoming Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, also dismissed the idea.

“I don’t think we need it,” he told reporters.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, California Republican, disagreed with Mr. Rangel’s long-held position that the burden of fighting wars fall disproportionately on low-income people. A study by the conservative Heritage Foundation concluded that the children of higher-income parents increased their enlistment numbers after the September 11 attack.

Mr. Hunter said his son left a civilian job to serve in Iraq and that several committee members have sons fighting in the war.

Mr. Rangel, an Iraq war critic who will become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, urged a new draft during the 2004 presidential election. Other Democrats floated a rumor that the Bush administration plotted behind the scenes to institute compulsory service because of missed recruiting goals.

The Republican leadership quickly moved for a floor vote that October. Then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, said of Democrats, “We’ve had enough of that. We’re going to call them on it. The Democrats are the only people that have a bill instituting the draft. We’re going to bring it out there, and we’re going to put a nail in it.”

Mr. Rangel’s proposal, which would draft women as well as men, was defeated 402-2. He even voted against it, saying Republicans brought up the bill up as a political stunt. Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, who subsequently called for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, and Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat, voted in favor of the bill.

The all-volunteer force began when President Nixon ended the draft in 1973, more than 30 years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered it to prepare for World War II. The draft was suspended after the war, but restarted in 1948. Women were exempt.

Mr. Rangel argued Sunday that “there’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm’s way.”

He added, “I think at a time where national security is so important, having our young people commit themselves to a couple of years in service of this great republic, whether it’s our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals and at the end of that to provide some educational benefits is the best thing for our young people and the best thing for our country.”