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Immigration and defense polices are contradictory; Thomas Loxley; Beaver County Times; April 28, 2017.
Previous Thomas Loxley (TL) letters I reviewed were “Putin plans to destroy America from within,” “Can Americans accept the challenge of democracy,” “Will GOP overreach destroy the party,” “Election interference demands a runoff” and “Cracker plant will turn Beaver into Stinkville.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Those with any military experience may be struck with the contradictions between President Donald Trump’s immigration and defense policies.
“While aspiring to deport millions who are living here illegally and barring immigrants from some Muslim nations, he plans to greatly expand the U.S. military, one that is literally dependent upon many of those same people to fill its ranks. Some 20,000 undocumented immigrants are already serving in our armed forces. U.S. law requires that the secretary of the affected military service annually determine that such enlistments are vital to the national interest.”
[RWC] If it’s true, 20,000 illegal aliens represent only 0.9% of active-duty personnel (2013).
“Ninety percent of our high school graduates are deemed mentally or physically unfit for military service. This caused many recruiters to use deceitful tactics to trick potential candidates into enlisting. Kids worried about their families losing their homes have been conned into thinking they’ll get a big bonus for signing up. Then, after reporting for basic training, many found they didn’t qualify and are stuck making the best of a bad situation.
“Many service families now depend upon food stamps to survive and female recruits seem subject to wanton sexual abuse. Potential military candidates, alienated by Trump, may now choose not to start or renew their military service. Who will then fill that gap?”
[RWC] Why does TL think “Potential military candidates [are] alienated by Trump?” Though the magnitude varied by survey/poll, military personnel preferred DT over HRC in both pre- and post-election polls.
“A new military draft may be needed much sooner than anyone expects. It’s ironic that our draft-dodger president would then have the privilege of signing such a law.”
[RWC] In case you haven’t noticed, today’s lefties routinely like to make people worry about evil Republicans reinstating the draft when Democrats tend to be the only people talking about it. Democrats actually submitted legislation to make it happen.
According to Wikipedia, “[U.S. Rep. Charles] Rangel [(D-NY)] introduced versions of his Universal National Service Act in the House in 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2010. Polls showed 70 percent of Americans opposed a reinstatement of the draft. Rangel emphasized that people could fulfill their draft obligations through non-military services, such as port and airline security. The one time the act came up for a vote in the full House, in 2004, it was defeated 2–402, with Rangel voting against his own bill in protest at the procedural handling of it.” There were 14 cosponsors, all of them Democrats. The two reps who voted in favor were John Murtha (D-PA) and Pete Stark (D-CA).
Both lefties and righties supported eliminating the draft, but for different reasons. Righties felt an all-volunteer military would have better morale because the personnel were there by choice, not by force.
For leftists, the all-volunteer military didn’t work out as planned. You see, when we eliminated the draft, these folks believed (hoped?) there would be insufficient volunteers to provide the U.S. with a capable military. That strategy didn’t work and the reason lefties now want a draft is to inject dissent via forced service.
It never ceases to amaze me how lefties step in it when discussing military service. Though it’s not a legal term, back in the day being a “draft dodger” meant doing something illegal to evade the draft.
Though VP Joe Biden had five student deferments vs. DT’s four, I didn’t see TL complain about it. Both men were ultimately disqualified for physical reasons.
Let’s not forget Bill Clinton, an honest-to-gosh draft evader.
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