http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/1/15/101752
Wednesday Jan. 15, 2003; 9:57 a.m. EST
Hillary Applauds Rangel for Draft Proposal
Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton said yesterday that she applauds Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-NY, for calling for a return to the military draft, as she prepared to accept a coveted spot on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Clinton, whose husband dodged three separate draft notices during the Vietnam War, told reporters that she "applauded" Rangel for reviving the draft debate, according to Newsday, although she doesn't see the need to return to military conscription at this time.
Mrs. Clinton's elevation to the Senate Armed Services Committee will give her a larger say in Congressional battles over the military's role in Iraq, North Korea and other global hot spots, as well as a significant role in influencing the military's budget.
During the Clinton administration, military budgets were slashed to the bone, leaving weapons procurement, combat readiness and troop morale at their lowest point since the Carter administration.
A year ago Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sharply criticized the Clinton cutbacks, telling NBC's "Meet the Press," "The infrastructure had decayed and it is still decayed and it will take now probably six, eight, ten years to get it back to the place that it ought to be - It takes time to run-down a great military and it takes time to build one back up."
But as the 2004 election approaches, Mrs. Clinton has taken a more hawkish stance. Last May, for instance, she delivered a commander-in-chief-like speech to a Long Island high school where she proclaimed that her new top priority was national security. Her national security address came just 24-hours after she slammed President Bush for ignoring a CIA warning that she hinted could have prevented the 9/11 attacks.
And just five months ago, Mr. Clinton, who once said he "loathed the military," suggested that he now had a different view, telling a Canadian audience that he was ready to "grab a rifle, get in a trench and fight and die" for Israel.
In 1994, Mrs. Clinton boasted that she had once tried to join the Marines but that a recruiter told her she was too old.
Before praising Rep. Rangel's draft proposal, Mrs. Clinton said she was "very excited" about her Armed Services appointment, acknowledging that it would give her a louder voice to "criticize or praise" President Bush, the New York Post said.
"As I learn more about the operations of our various military services," she added, "what I have to say may be better grounded."
Clinton will make her debut on the Armed Services Committee today, when she grills Defense Secretary Rumsfeld behind closed doors about Iraq. It could not be learned immediately whether she will also challenge Rumsfeld's critique of Clinton era military cutbacks.
End of article
Wednesday Jan. 15, 2003; 9:57 a.m. EST
Hillary Applauds Rangel for Draft Proposal
Democratic Party presidential frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton said yesterday that she applauds Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-NY, for calling for a return to the military draft, as she prepared to accept a coveted spot on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Clinton, whose husband dodged three separate draft notices during the Vietnam War, told reporters that she "applauded" Rangel for reviving the draft debate, according to Newsday, although she doesn't see the need to return to military conscription at this time.
Mrs. Clinton's elevation to the Senate Armed Services Committee will give her a larger say in Congressional battles over the military's role in Iraq, North Korea and other global hot spots, as well as a significant role in influencing the military's budget.
During the Clinton administration, military budgets were slashed to the bone, leaving weapons procurement, combat readiness and troop morale at their lowest point since the Carter administration.
A year ago Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sharply criticized the Clinton cutbacks, telling NBC's "Meet the Press," "The infrastructure had decayed and it is still decayed and it will take now probably six, eight, ten years to get it back to the place that it ought to be - It takes time to run-down a great military and it takes time to build one back up."
But as the 2004 election approaches, Mrs. Clinton has taken a more hawkish stance. Last May, for instance, she delivered a commander-in-chief-like speech to a Long Island high school where she proclaimed that her new top priority was national security. Her national security address came just 24-hours after she slammed President Bush for ignoring a CIA warning that she hinted could have prevented the 9/11 attacks.
And just five months ago, Mr. Clinton, who once said he "loathed the military," suggested that he now had a different view, telling a Canadian audience that he was ready to "grab a rifle, get in a trench and fight and die" for Israel.
In 1994, Mrs. Clinton boasted that she had once tried to join the Marines but that a recruiter told her she was too old.
Before praising Rep. Rangel's draft proposal, Mrs. Clinton said she was "very excited" about her Armed Services appointment, acknowledging that it would give her a louder voice to "criticize or praise" President Bush, the New York Post said.
"As I learn more about the operations of our various military services," she added, "what I have to say may be better grounded."
Clinton will make her debut on the Armed Services Committee today, when she grills Defense Secretary Rumsfeld behind closed doors about Iraq. It could not be learned immediately whether she will also challenge Rumsfeld's critique of Clinton era military cutbacks.
End of article
She probably even figured out how to inhale when she was smoking with Bill.
