What Senator John Kerry said about college students either studying hard or getting stuck in Iraq should not have been a surprise to those who have followed his rhetoric over the years. He made the same statement decades ago about the men and women who were serving in Vietnam.

Recently, New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, soon to be chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, renewed his call for a return of the draft.  He see the draft as a way to deter politicians from launching wars. Rangel said, "There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft, and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way."

In the book AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How it Hurts Our Country, authors Kathryn Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer say it best: "When those who benefit most from living in a country, contribute the least to its defense, and those who benefit least are asked to pay the ultimate price, something happens to the soul of that country."

What is the state of our democracy when "leaders" like John Kerry show contempt for military service and imply superiority for those not serving?

Military.com columnist Winslow Wheeler writes, "Fewer than a third of the current members of Congress have worn the uniform, down from three-quarters in 1971. Congressmen of the future are even less likely to be veterans and some of the veterans in Congress today are like John Kerry, infatuated with the politics of protest. Our wars, says a curmudgeon of my acquaintance, 'are started by men educated at Harvard and Yale and fought by young men educated at Central High School and Oklahoma State and Colorado Christian and North Carolina A&T.'"

Capt John Byron, USN (Ret), writing for the October issue of the Naval Institute's  "Proceedings" questions the ease with which an "all volunteer force" (AVF) gives any president the ability to make war.  He writes, "The military we do have is drawn by economic bargain and recruiting finesse largely from non-elite segments of our nation. It lives alone, a separate society parallel but distant from the rest of America. Few of our nation's politician or business leaders have military experience, but whether they served or not the AVF guarantees that their kids will never be forced to sacrifice for their country."

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has long been opposed to bringing back the draft, and the sons and daughters of the "elite" among us see no need for a military at all.

And that by itself is why we need to bring back the draft.