| Libertarian Party of NY -- Press Release -- Libertarians Blast Democrat's Call for Renewed Draft |
LIBERTARIANS BLAST DEMOCRAT'S CALL FOR RENEWED DRAFT
Albany, NY 11/22/06 New York's Libertarian Party has blasted incoming Democratic Congressional leader Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) announced that he will introduce legislation to restore the military draft. Former State Chair John Clifton of Queens is a former Navy nuclear submarine missile technician. Like Rangel he is black but opposes the draft and resents the Congressman's appeal to race on this issue for all Americans.
"This is nothing less than a call for a return of slavery, making people subject to the state as master, both at home (by being drafted) or abroad (by its expansion of the American military empire). It's all political theater, designed to give others in the Democratic leadership, like incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a chance to look centrist in opposing a wildly unpopular bill. Rangel should know that African American soldiers in Iraq have not been dying out of proportion to their numbers in the general population; if anything their casualty rate has been under that ratio. The whole racial card he’s pulling is a fraud, in an attempt to try to re-institute legalized kidnapping in America. We should permanently outlaw conscription, not bring it back. If a truly just war needs to be fought, Americans will rise to the occasion to sign up, as they always have. We don’t need to feed the military-industrial complex with even more human inventory." Clifton ran for US Senate in 2000 and Governor in 2006 on the Libertarian line.
Current State Libertarian Chair Richard Cooper from Nassau notes that the Libertarian Party's opposition to the draft and both Selective or universal service goes back to the very beginning of the group. He says that his own activism to the draft dates back to when there was still a draft. "As we mourn the death of a great American and great libertarian, Milton Friedman, let us honor his memory by defending one of his accomplishments--the volunteer Army. Libertarians believe in a voluntary society with a voluntary armed forces, not one where people are conscripted to suit the designs of others."
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