If only. 
Thing is, if the draft is broadly unpopular, how many kids would really face jail for refusing to show up when drafted? How many millions of 18 year olds can our jails hold, honestly?
Oh, and by the way, there ain’t gonna be no draft. President Bush can’t just pull a draft out of his ass.
Sure, I understand the logic that if we want to maintain our current force levels in Iraq, we’ll eventually need a draft. So what does that tell you? Well, two choices. Either we institute a draft, or we reduce our force levels in Iraq. Which strikes you as more likely? Given that in January 2009, about a year and half from now, George Bush isn’t going to be President any more. You honestly think Hillary or Obama or Edwards are going to try to institute a draft to maintain troop levels in Iraq?
I’d moved to Canada if they attempted to draft me.
Way I figure it. Since I’ve committed no crime some moron president’s war in no way is great enough to remove my liberty and it’s my patriotic duty to fight anyone who attempts to draft me to death. Enough people do that, and drafts just won’t work.
That’s assuming I couldn’t make it to Canada. No point being dumb and fighting a battle like that when I can just get my liberty protected somewhere else.
I don’t know…it just seemed appropriate for some reason. Besides, I always wanted to quote this in a thread…
-XT
Congressman Rangel of New York keeps bringing up the draft. I think he does it to get it shot down so that a better draft bill can’t be instated.
A lot of people I know think that a draft is a good idea because then it will bring resistance to the war home.
That being said, I’d probably be willing to fight a draft with real bullets if it came to it.
Sigh. To review the clues, the OP asked what would happen if the draft were reinstated. One person said that there would be a lot of resistors. I said that this was true, especially because if the Dems took over (and I meant the White House, so there would be no veto issue, and because the President could grant amnesty) there would be immediately amnesty. Then you brought up the fact that there would be no draft because the Dems were already in control of Congress, and we joined the “could there really be a draft” tributary.
BTW, one could make the argument that they rolled over on the war funding/timeline issue also.
Please don’t misrepresent my posts. I never said there would be no draft because the Dems were already in control of Congress. Your post was unclear about what you meant by “when the Dems take over”, and I just pointed out that they already were in control of Congress. And if they “rolled over” and let Bush push thru a draft, I see no reason to believe that a Democratic president would grant amnesty. If “the Dems” could be counted on for that, then they wouldn’t have rolled over in the first place. So, if they do “roll over” and let Bush push thru a draft, then a Democratic president would most likely “roll over” and keep in place.
Which just goes to show what ridiculous conclusions one comes to when one starts with ridiculous assumptions.
I am 21, which is definitely ‘draft age’. If I awoke tomorrow to a world where the draft has been reinstated I would not want to go. Here I would have a few options:
- Leave the country: Running away is not my style.
- Resist and go to jail: Going to jail is even less my style.
- Wait and hope my number doesn’t come up: I’ve never been lucky and wouldn’t be foolish enough to think that would change now.
- Join the Coast Guard: This is the obvious answer for me. I know my way around a small vessel. I know my port from my starb’rd, my aft from my fow’rd. I know how to pronounce gunwale, I even know a few good sea shanties.
My guess is that more than a few others would be able to figure out how to avoid serving as grunts, others would pick options 1 and 2, and the draft would end up doing less than expected.
I’d go. It’s a dumb war that I don’t really care about, but I’ve never been in an actual like war-war with tanks and shit so it would be something new at least. I think I’m too old to be in the first round draft though.
A lot of people would try to get out via legal means (through whatever, if any, deferments are offered.) However I think a larger percentage than many might imagine would end up reporting for service is drafted.
Look at relatively “similar” situations. In many cases people who are facing long term prison sentences are released on bail, I imagine a huge number of these people probably know that even in the best likely scenario all they can hope for is a plea agreement which will still carry significant incarceration time. Yet, more people actually appear in court and end up “taking their punishment” than they do jumping bail (although lots of people do jump bail, most don’t.)
There’s many ways you could probably get “out” of a proceeding, but most people choose not to do it. Primarily because all the “outs” require leaving the country, going into hiding and et cetera. It means probably leaving everything you’ve ever known and not having a reasonable chance of coming back for a long time, if ever.
I have to agree, and I was in the Army, voluntarily, long ago (sometimes it seems like long ago). I believe in believing in your country and even fighting for your country if there is a need. I do not and never will believe in fighting for an individual (a politician) or to enrich oil companies or to enable some pencil necked draft dodging group of geeks’ (New American Century something or other) dreams of empire. To hell with Halliburton and their subsidiary Keith Brown Root too.
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I don’t think the gays have to fear the draft.
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But remember, if there is a new draft, it certainly isn’t going to be the same as the Vietnam-era draft. For one thing, back then the National Guard was a safe place for the sons of connected people to “serve their time” without the risk of being sent overseas. Nowadays National Guard units are sent overseas regularly. The old style college deferments will almost certainly not be reinstated. The prohibition on gays will have to be lifted. And what about women? And what will be the penalty for refusing to show up? It would have to be a slap on the wrist, something like being denied student loans, rather than jail time. Will the draft be universal or selective? That is, will everyone (or every male?) have to serve 2 years on their 18th birthday? Or will the military put out a call for 100,000 people, and unless they call you, you’re safe? Will there be “safe” alternatives, where you can be drafted into the military, but have to volunteer for overseas duty?
Since none of these questions can be answered, speculation on how the American people would react to a draft is kind of pointless. If the American people are against the draft it cannot happen. But a sizable minority that is unalterably opposed to a draft can prevent it from happening, even if a majority were willing to go along.
See, if there were a draft, and if conscripts were being rounded up and shipped to Iraq and coming home in body bags, then the draft becomes the biggest political issue in America. And this is precisely why a draft is politically impossible, because while there is a rabid anti-draft constituency, there will never be a corresponding rabid pro-draft constituency. Sure, there will be a mild pro-draft constituency: those who think the service will straighten out today’s punk kids, those who are pro-war, those who think that if the president wants a draft he must be right. There will be a thousand committed grass-roots anti-draft organizations, how many grass-roots pro-draft organizations will there be? Sure, the usual suspects will support the draft, but they’re not going to form neighborhood pro-draft organizations. And if there were a national pro-draft frenzy a draft would be moot, because everyone would be volunteering. It isn’t like abortion or gun-control, where we can imagine rabid pro-lifers and rabid-pro-choicers duking it out. Those who favor a draft won’t do so because they love the idea, they’ll do so because they think they were forced into it.
I can sympathize with you on this one, the problem with this is that the issue for me isn’t my own life, but those people I need to murder in the name of global capitalism.
If we were actually invaded here in the US, I would sign up in a heartbeat so a draft would be moot.
Actually, the problem is the absurd 20th century fiction that killing lots of people who would rather not be dead can be moral, sometimes, if you do it right. War by its nature is irreconcilable with morality. I would know this when I got on the plane.
Right, that’s why I wouldn’t get on the plane.
I can’t begin to write how completing underwhelming and selfish this post is.
As has been noted, the main reason that I can see is that the military itself wants no part of a draft. It’s hard enough training up men and women who want to be in the military. It would be totally untenable to have a draft under current conditions. I’ve never one talked to a senior civilian or military Officer who has advocated the draft.
Not a good option. The USCG is one of the US Armed Services, and has been involved in almost every US war, basically as an adjunct of the US Navy. There have been at least 2 USCG casualties in Iraq.
So… 78 posts and no one but Lemur has pointed out that a draft would pretty much have to include women? It’s not going to happen. Old men will send young ones to die at war, but most of them would have a much bigger problem sending young women (especially when some of them still think they shouldn’t leave the kitchen, let alone the country).
RickyJay has a point, but I do think our access to information has changed. Teens these days aren’t exactly watching videos of soldier skiing down snowy slopes. They’re watching heads get blown off and Iraqi teens getting stripped and stoned to death.
I do think it’s interesting after all these years that we’re going to be required to have passports to go to Mexico and Canada. Having a passport is not something that I would procrastinate about if I were anywhere close to draft age.
During the Vietnam War, some countries were more willing to accept emigrants from the United States. Canada and Sweden were particularly well known for their support.
Even a short thread like this one shows varying motives behind going along with the draft or refusing to be drafted. Depending on the individual, either choice can be mindless or honorable.
To my mind, killing so that you won’t have to fight and fighting for peace are both ignorant concepts.