tdaxp

At a time when a Center Right-Center Left coalition government may be in the works, where President Bush and Speaker Pelosi concentrate on victory in Iraq, immigration reform, minimum wage reform, tax relief, and other important issues, elements of the blogosphereic right continue to come unhinged.

The latest rabid right suggestion? A draft. Yup, it's not just for the party of slavery anymore.

Mark Krikorian, writing at The Corner:

But I still think there would be enormous social benefits to universal (male) military service. I've long thought the way to reconcile this would be to have one-year mandatory service in the National Guard (or the reserves or the militia, which some states still have) — this would be separate from the active-duty military and could in fact serve as a recruiting vehicle for regular service. Essentially, this would amount to one year (say, July to July after graduation from high school) of basic training and emergency assistance (floods and the like), after which you either try to get in to the regular military or go on with your life.

Mario Loyla posted a technical rejection of the idea, against which Mark held on to his call for state-imposition of a militarized populace, As far as I can tell, no one on the blog has criticized him for his view's authoritarianism.

Update: More on the rabid right from Mark of ZenPundit.

Update 2: The Corner's Andrew Stuttaford steps up:

Well, Mark, it may be 'libertarian cowflap' to you, but the argument that the state has no right to kidnap its young people has considerable moral force. In fact, it's unanswerable. As for a draft being a device to inculcate patriotism, that rather depends on the type of patriotism you are trying to teach. If it's an American patriotism, it won't wash. The fundamental Anglo-American notion of liberty as it has evolved since at least the late 17th Century includes the idea that the state should not have the right to compel its citizens' labor in this way. Thus the British naval press gangs of the 18th Century are still remembered with disgust and thus the fact that male conscription was only introduced in the UK two years into the First World War. It's no coincidence that the one time in recent British history where we saw a peacetime draft ('national service' was the preferred euphemism) was between 1945 and 1960, an era when collectivist ideas prevailed, ideas, incidentally, that were reinforced and spread by the conscription process. Yes, a draft might produce a docile citizenry fit to delight a Rodham, a Blair, or a big government conservative, but other than in a profound national emergency (and compelling youngsters to dig ditches or whatever does not seem to fall into that category) it ought to have no part in a America still run according to the ideals of its founders. Is encouraging patriotism and a pride in this country a good thing? Absolutely. But is a draft the way to do it? No.

It's worth adding that, beyond the moral and political objections, there are, of course, the practical ones. Militarily, conscription would misallocate resources away from the creation of the specialist, technically advanced and highly trained armed services that are needed today, while the creation of non-military 'national service' would simply mean that government would delegate some of the functions it now performs incompetently, inadequately or, usually, both, to a force of underpaid, discontented and untrained conscripts who would make even more of a mess of it. That is not the way to go.

Thank God that the rabid right hasn't taken over all of the blogosphere.

First the Murtha implosion, and now a Democrat calls for a Draft.

It's hard to imagine a worse week for Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi.

As long as she is able to pass Bush's comprehensive immigration reform, her speakership won't be a failure. So, for now, I am still wishing her the best.

Still... her inability to lead is noticeable.

"Uncle Sam Wants You," by Andrew J. Bacevich, Boston Globe, 28 March 2005, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/28/uncle_sam_wants_you/.

American Leftism opposes freedom and supports compulsion. It supports compelling pharmacists to serve who the state wishes. It supports compelling doctors to treat who the state wishes. It supports compelling youths to kill who the state wishes.

Less privileged Americans -- people of color along with the sons and daughters of the working class -- picked up the slack. As a consequence, the military establishment that emerged by the 1990s as a preeminent symbol of revived national self-confidence and self-esteem was in no sense representative of American society. Its members came not from the suburbs but from the farm and the inner city, not from Harvard but from Prairie View A & M. Seldom acknowledged openly but tacitly understood by all, this ignoble arrangement figured prominently in easing the divisions that Vietnam had opened up at home.

According to President Bush, winning the global war on terror means that the United States must exert itself to spread the blessings of liberty around the world. If so, then those who enjoy a disproportionate share of freedom's blessings here at home ought to share in the sacrifices that such an enterprise necessarily entails. In that regard, plastering yellow-ribbon decals on the back of the family SUV or sporting ''Support Our Troops" jelly bracelets as fashion accessories just won't cut it.

Military service today is no longer a job opportunity to be coveted. Increasingly, it is becoming a trial to be endured. The immediate question posed by the crisis confronting the all-volunteer force is not whether to revive the draft. Instead the question is this: Will this democracy ensure that the burdens of war are distributed consistent with the principles of equity and justice?

Never mind the factual irregularities -- that blacks have been a disproportionately small share of the combat force for more than a decade.

The renewed call for a draft on the left is worrying. But it is not new. I blogged on John Kerry's and Juan Cole fascination with serfdom earlier.

I'm not saying that all Leftists support a draft. But it seems that many more of them want one than conservatives. Oppose the draft. Be a conservative.