When New York Congressman Charlie Rangel proposed legislation to reinstate the military draft, he couldn’t have been less serious.

Draft registration was suspended in April 1975, but resumed under President Jimmy Carter in 1980 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Last fall, 11.1 million men were registered, according to Selective Service statistics.

Rangel, who has represented the 15th Congressional District in Harlem for 32 years, knows his way around Capitol Hill. Better than most, he understands how the game is played. After all, he succeeded the irascible, irrepressible and incorrigible Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the Harlem dandy whose picture should be in every dictionary on Earth next to the word chutzpah.

It was the last week of 2002 and Rangel, who earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star in the Korean Conflict, looked around in search of a new and controversial issue. He has made his feelings against going to war against Iraq well known. It occurred to him that what the military of America lacked most was not soldiers, but diversity. In his letter to his Democratic colleagues who voted against the Iraq war resolution, Rangel said he was concerned that the burden of military service was being borne disproportionately by members of disadvantaged groups.

That translates to this: Minorities should not be expected to fight this war while other Americans sit back in relative safety. It occurred to Rangel that since President Bush was so gung-ho about going to war against Iraq, he might be persuaded to put on his brakes a bit if he were forced to face a military draft proposal that insisted upon a “shared sacrifice” among Americans to support the war.

Rangel is a rascal. Tongue firmly in cheek, he said in his loudest voice: “If our great country becomes involved in an all-out war, the sacrifice must be shared.”

What red-blooded American could argue against that? Rangel always does his homework. He is aware that blacks make up about 11 percent of the adult population. According to the Defense Department, they account for 20 percent of the military overall and 22 percent of the enlisted forces.

Support quickly came from Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., who has also opposed a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. Conyers reasoned aloud that administration officials and lawmakers would be less likely to go to war “if their own family members and neighbors faced the prospect of serving the military on the front line.” Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., the military personnel subcommittee’s top Democrat, joined forces with Rangel and Conyers. Opposed to a return to the draft, the Pentagon joined the fray by claiming that the all-volunteer force has provided a military “that is experienced, smart, disciplined and representative of America.”

Rangel must have smiled to himself when he heard that. He had everybody spouting off at his prankish idea of reinstating the draft. He must have whispered to himself: Adam Powell would be proud!

Rangel proved he still knows how to stir up the troops. He worked the levers of Congress with aplomb.

Even Rangel acknowledges that his call for a conscripted military was partly an antiwar ploy. He knew that even if his proposal failed to win wide support, it wasn’t likely that it would be ignored. What was important was that he got Congress and the military moguls thinking and talking — and even some to acknowledge that the idea of a “shared sacrifice” was as American as apple pie.

Rangel’s been around Congress long enough to know that on Capitol Hill noisemakers get attention, and that the silent majority in Congress gets ignored. That’s how things often get done in Washington.

It’s fairly clear how it’ll all play out. But Rangel was on C-Span on Tuesday, insisting that despite widespread opposition to his proposal, he’s “moving ahead with it.”

For now, the flag is up. Let’s see how long it flies with Congress back in session.

Claude Lewis is a retired columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.