Oh how I remember The Draft.  It was that law that rounded up many of my friends and relatives and took them off to fight for the Military Industrial Complex.  Many came back in coffins while others came back with physical and mental scars that would haunt them and their loved ones for a lifetime.  The Draft was racist and totally unfair.  Those with money and connections could finesse around it.  The disadvantaged were easy prey for a system hell bent on power at any cost (someone else’s cost).

Gays are not officially allowed in the military but The Draft grabbed them as fast as anyone else.  Communists and militants like the Black Panthers were not allowed in the military but The Draft rounded them up and forced them in also.  The maximum age for The Draft was 26 but I witnessed men over the age of 30 being forced in.  The real unfortunate would find themselves being loaded onto a bus that was headed for Camp Pendleton or Parris Island for Marine Corps Duty instead of the Army.  It was cruel, ruthless and even murderous.

I and my group of unfortunates almost faced a very big double cross.  We were college graduates with low Draft numbers lured to apply for Officer Candidate School, in lieu of the normal enlisted status via The Draft that was certain.  Once we got in they declared the Officer School Class cancelled and we would have to do three years of enlisted service as opposed to the two years via the normal Draft.  However, we got lucky!  One of us was connected to Senator Barry Goldwater – his mother was his secretary.  He called her and Barry Goldwater got on the line.  He said, “They can’t lie to you guys like that.  I will have it turned around by tomorrow.”  This was one Senator you could trust.  By 11:00AM the next morning we were back on track to Officer Candidate School.  This was my first experience with Political Power.  I never forgot or under appreciated it.

Such was the trickery of The Draft that fueled the fires of the Vietnam War.  We got into the war because there was a draft.  It is a mechanism that pumps the manpower and makes it easy to create enough military personnel.  It is tempting to Congress to go to war when they know they have enough troops to go into battle.  If there were a draft going on now we would also be in Iran or Syria or both.  The faces of battle would be basically brown or black as the upper middle class whites would create deferments. 

When Congressman Charles Rangel wrote a bill to restore The Draft the above flashbacked into the minds of every member of the House of Representatives and they voted against it 400 – 2.  It was a pure stomping.  But the old Draft isn’t what Congressman Rangel is talking about.  The upcoming Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has another scheme for The Draft.

This nation is seriously deep in debt.  We owe the world over $12 trillion and don’t have a clue how we are going to get out of it.  There are two simple options that no one will face.  1. They can tax us out of it.  But no American public is going to take that pain without voting out the entire Congress.  2.  We can seriously cut down our spending.  But no pork barrel addicted Congress is going to bring itself to facing up to this.  You can’t make a “crack head” voluntarily put down a crack pipe.

So here is Rangel’s new option.  Let’s have a Nouveau Draft.  Let’s force young Americans to work in our airports, highways, borders, national parks, etc. at very low wages and still have a heavily populated military ready for Halliburton and “the boys” when they need more unsolicited contracts.  We can work our way out of this humungous debt by hiring able bodied men and women to work for “peanuts” on government jobs.  Replace the lucrative GS Pay Schedule (federal employees) with the super cheap E Pay Schedule (enlisted troops).   This is so slick and cunning.

America, please wake up to this scheme and call it what it is:  A plain old evil and despicable Draft that is no better than the previous one.  We must not discuss it or even debate the merits.  There are no merits.  Our youth did not get us in this debt mess and shame on us to stick them with the bill. Cut the pork!!  Run our government like you have accountability.

Mr. Alford is the President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. 

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