Let's Hear Nothing Of A "Draft" Unless We're Talking About Beer

ToogoodReports ^ | May 8, 2002 | Lee R. Shelton IV

[Britton J Wingfield]

We have plenty of reservists that are ready and willing to go. A draft is an all-around bad idea.

[Rodney King]

The draft is stupid. There is nothing worse than soldiers who don't want to be there. There are easily 4-5 million Americans who would be willing to do it now, or at least with a good pay raise.

[Redbob]

Make mine a Dinkel Acker dunkel weizen.

Just don't make me say it aloud.

[Windsong]

One might as well allow women to sign up for Navy Seal training. Nah, they'd much rather be Army Rangers. Hmm..maybe even Green Berets!

[Cold Heat]

I would be in favor of it for border control. I would like to see some of the Bush bashers on border policy drafted so that they would be satisfied that something is being done...:-)

[RichInOC]

WHAT? What about sports?

[HairOfTheDog]

What about wonderful Draft Horses? can we talk about them?

[pabianice]

Ahhh... the sound of aged 60's hippie guilt, cowardice, and selfishness wafts through the spring air...

[balrog666]

Make mine a Dinkel Acker dunkel weizen.

Yum, yum. Make mine an ice cold 5 liter mini-keg.

[hapy]

Just think of how nice things will be when the cowards leave!

[wheezer]

Yum, yum. Make mine an ice cold 5 liter mini-keg.

LOL...you mean the road trip size?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

If I were a betting man, I would take pretty long odds from anyone who seriously believes that the military draft could be reinstated in this country. The social conditioning (ie, that everyone owes something to this Nation) is no longer there, and probably could not be revived in our lifetime. When the question is "What's in it for ME, ?", the Draft Board has to reply "Not much!"

No, we chose to stake the survival of America on a volunteer Military, and we will have to play that hand out.

Also, as I have noted elsewhere, the huge training base that would be needed for a massive draft simply no longer exists, and would take at least tow years to rebuild- even as a "crash priority".

[Psycho_Bunny]

"No, we chose to stake the survival of America on a volunteer Military, and we will have to play that hand out."

There was never a place in this country for the draft.

[July 4th]

There are easily 4-5 million Americans who would be willing to do it now, or at least with a good pay raise.

I seriously considered Navy JAG corps for when I'm done with law school, but for the fact that the pay is awful. I couldn't live above the poverty line and at the same time pay back my student loans. I think it's a job I could handle and really like for several years, but I'm not going to mortgage my future to do it.

[LouD]

The draft is stupid. There is nothing worse than soldiers who don't want to be there.

I disagree. With the current volunteer force, military service falls disproportionately on the lower socio-economic classes of society. While many better themselves significantly as a result, we still see an increasing detachment of upper and middle class America from the realities of military service.

As an alternative to the draft, I like Robert Heinlein's idea in Starship Troopers - military service is voluntary, but the price one pays for citizenship, and the right to vote or hold public office.

[Rodney King]

I disagree. With the current volunteer force, military service falls disproportionately on the lower socio-economic classes of society

I am not sure that is the case, although I am open to it. I do not claim to be an expert, but I understand that while the leftists all claim that we sent all the poor negroes to die in vietnam, the reality is that more than half of the casualties were white volunteers. I don't see why this would be any different.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

"There was never a place in this country for the draft."

I'm not trying to be snide, because this is a serious moral question on which good people can (and do) disagree. BUT, do you think we could have put twelve million men under arms, and won WW II without a draft? Really, do you?

That said, I tend toward the position that, if enough young people just will not volunteer to defend this country, perhaps the country is deficient in some way. Perhaps in ways that a renewed draft could not cure. If so, we are doomed, anyway.

[freeeee]

As an alternative to the draft, I like Robert Heinlein's idea in Starship Troopers - military service is voluntary, but the price one pays for citizenship, and the right to vote or hold public office.

Ahem...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Government is only just if it is instituted by the consent of the governed. Limiting the vote to those of any subset of Americans (save age) causes there to be a large portion of the population whose consent is not given.

In other words, Liberty is a birthright, not a privilidge to be given by one's Magistrate at the price of State servitude.

Since consent of the governed is the only way a government can draw legitimate powers, the one you suggest would be illegitimate, unjust and the people would be fully justified in heeding the Declaration's next paragraph:

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

[Tuor]

What is up with the font? Is this your doing or is this the article? Please...have some mercy on my eyesight.

Tuor