COLUMBIA, S.C., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- As elections heat up, Americans expect to hear vigorous debates about issues that are important to them. However, recent actions by Democrats in South Carolina and nationally have indicated that they have no positive issues to campaign on, and have instead resorted to false scare-tactics and distractions. Last week, the South Carolina Democratic Party sent out a despicable campaign letter, intended to frighten voters into registering as a Democrat.
The front page of the mailing appears to be a draft notice from the president of the United States, requiring the addressee to report for duty.
The next page states, "Officials in Washington are calling for more troops for Iraq."
A voter registration form is also included along with the question: "Which would you rather fill out?"
Democrats are insinuating that President Bush is about to start a new draft to support the war on terror. This is a lie. The Democrats should be ashamed.
As a retired colonel in the U.S. Army National Guard, and with three sons -- one of whom is serving in Iraq today -- in the military, I am appalled. Crying "wolf" about the need for a draft causes doubt about the ability of our armed forces, and hurts our morale and recruitment.
Let's be clear. The all-volunteer U.S. military is succeeding in the war on terror, and retention remains high. There is absolutely no need for a draft. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has emphatically said that not one person in the executive branch supports or has talked about reinstating the draft.
In fact the only people pushing for a military draft are Democrats. Last year, Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., sponsored legislation to create a new draft; Hollings' bill has yet to garner a single cosponsor.
There were many otherwise astute political observers who were puzzled why they would even introduce such bizarre legislation. Now we know. It was a political stunt, done to give Democrats a torch to wave to frighten young voters and their parents.
The South Carolina Democrats' mailer is only the latest element of a coordinated campaign by Democrats nationally to push this lie of an impending draft. Earlier in the year Robert Reich, Clinton's secretary of Labor and an adviser to John F. Kerry's presidential campaign, had the audacity to say tell a stunned audience on "The Daily Show," a program the skews to a younger demographic, that the Bush administration was trying to pass a bill to reinstate the draft.
Kerry was asked specifically about the return of the draft during a town hall meeting on May 26: "Asked by a student if he believed the military draft would be resumed, Kerry said to sustained applause and cheers, 'If you elect me president ... I will give us a foreign policy that absolutely makes it unnecessary to have a draft,'" Kerry's campaign Web site recalls.
The Massachusetts Democrat has also spoken repeatedly about the threat of a Bush administration "back-door draft" when it is only members of Kerry's own party who are talking about bringing the draft back.
These scare tactics are not what the U.S. people nor is it what they deserve. Candidates should run on issues that matter to working families: tax relief, a quality education for the nation's children, secure retirement for the nation's elderly.
President Bush and the congressional Republicans have a proud record of achievement on these issues. In the last four years, the GOP-controlled Congress has passed and Bush has signed legislation to cut taxes, to improve education, to give senior Americans much needed assistance obtaining the prescription drugs vital to their quality of life and, most important, a strengthened national defense against terrorism. And, during the Republican National Convention in New York, this is what you will here.
The Democrats, while trumpeting loud and long Kerry's four-month service in Vietnam, barely mentioned his two decades in the U.S. Senate; probably because it is too easy to use it to brand him as a typical Massachusetts' liberal.
For 20 years, Kerry has voted repeatedly to cut defense; to cut the U.S. intelligence budget; to raise taxes to let partial-birth abortions continue to be performed throughout the United States; and against the Defense of Marriage Act to protect the institution of marriage as we all understand it to be.
Kerry and the Democrats do not have a positive agenda for the United States, so they must limit themselves to attacks on the Republicans. While Bush and the Republicans campaign on a platform of real ideas, of values to secure America's future, the Democrats try to rally their votes using fear and distortion.
Kerry, the Democratic National Committee's Terry McAuliffe and the leaders of the South Carolina Democratic Party should apologize immediately, not just for the phony draft mailer, but for the smear on those who voluntarily answered the call to duty. The draft was serious business in the 1960s; it dishonors those who did not come back then to make political sport of it now.
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(U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., is a retired colonel in the Army National Guard and a member of the House Armed Services Committee.)
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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
