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Rep. Rangel has recently reintroduced his bill to reinstate the draft, saying 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”

While Rep. Rangel’s argument is probably right, as far as it goes, it is antithetical to any idea of a free society. To quote a few distinguished persons:

“Conscription subjects individual personalities to militarism. It is a form of servitude. That nations routinely tolerate it, is just one more proof of its debilitating influence”

Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell, Thomas Mann (Against Conscription and the Military Training of Youth - 1930)

Even the idea of “National Service”, with all of its provisions for non-military service for the “conscientious objector”, as a kinder, gentler conscription is untenable in a free society. To require a period of involuntary servitude from someone based on a geographic accident of birth or current residence is not only immoral, but unconstitutional, according to the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”