HONOLULU -- The prospect of a war on two fronts against North Korea and Iraq in addition to the battle against terror and the new campaign for homeland security has sparked calls for a return to the U.S. military draft.
Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, introduced a bill last week that would revive conscription, which has been dormant since 1973. Rangel, an African American, asserted that U.S. President George W. Bush's war plans would require sacrifices "and those sacrifices need to be shared."
Rangel was supported by Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and an African American who contended that blacks would bear the blunt of front-line fighting, while whites from the middle class would escape hazardous duty.