3221 Why does Charlie Rangel want to destroy the military?

Because he's a Democrat? Because he hates the United States? Because he's an idiot? Because it gets him a lot of publicity (this one gets my vote)? He's the black congressman who wants to reinstate the draft. When he first started chattering about this a few years ago (I heard him on Fox), he got so much attention that he's kept it up. He even introduced a bill a few years back. Now it is part of his comedy routine, only it isn't funny anymore, Chuck'ems. His thinking, in my opinion, is that this would cause a lot of outrage by young people, who would then become more fodder for anti-war protests, not for a giant war machine. It certainly isn't because the military is relying too heavily on the poor and uneducated, which he claims. A Heritage Foundation study last year found just the opposite. Our recruits are better educated than the general population.

". . . if we consider the education of every recruit, 98% joined with high-school diplomas or better. By comparison, 75% of the general population meets that standard. Among all three-digit ZIP code areas in the USA in 2003 (one can study larger areas by isolating just the first three digits of ZIP codes), not one had a higher graduation rate among civilians than among its recruits."

"Allegations that recruiters are disproportionately targeting blacks also don't hold water. First, whites make up 77.4% of the nation's population and 75.8% of its military volunteers, according to our analysis of Department of Defense data.

Second, we explored the 100 three-digit ZIP code areas with the highest concentration of blacks, which range from 24.1% black up to 68.6%. These areas, which account for 14.6% of the adult population, produced 16.6% of recruits in 1999 and only 14.1% in 2003."

So, the number of black recruits is going down. Just what are you saying Charlie? Not more rural, not more blacks, not more uneducated. Back to the socialist/anarchist playbook.

Charlie Rangel Kerrys the troops on a slow news day.

military recruitment
Charlie Rangel
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