If the draft was reinstated, and they called your number...
- Thread starter Kup
- Start date
Considering I'm 42, overweight, have back problems and panic disorder with loud noises as a trigger? I don't think that would work. I'm fairly sure being on disability exempts one from the draft.
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I'd tell them that I'm too old to go die for an oil company. Then hang up.
Then probably get arrested, but it's the thought that counts.
Then probably get arrested, but it's the thought that counts.
Oh yeah. We are technically still supposed to register for that thing, aren't we?
*tries to whistle, doesn't know how*
*tries to whistle, doesn't know how*
This was my answer
FWIW, I'm 100% opposed to war, a strong pacifist, but I'm not deluded enough to think that if someone broke into my home I wouldn't try to defend myself.
But that's just it -- my sense of obligation stops at my front door. I don't feel like this country gives two cents about me, so why should I care about it? Or to put it another way, some egocentrically bully (looking at you Putin) decides he can't back down from a fight and drags my family into his own petty squabble with other nations.
Honestly, I feel like my answer would be to jail me. I feel like I should have a stronger sense of "defend the helpless" but my priority is my family first. I know that for countries who have mandatory service, saying no to the draft might seem odd (maybe?).
I suppose civil service is an option that avoids jail time, yet I still wrestle with the idea that a country who literally sees me as human livestock deserves anything from me.
I think I'm most scared for my son. At 41, I'd think the likelihood of getting drafted is low. He'll be 18 in just four years. As my only son though, isn't there a "carry on the family name" thing that would make him exempt? We have a daughter, but of course women are exempt from registering.
FWIW, I'm 100% opposed to war, a strong pacifist, but I'm not deluded enough to think that if someone broke into my home I wouldn't try to defend myself.
But that's just it -- my sense of obligation stops at my front door. I don't feel like this country gives two cents about me, so why should I care about it? Or to put it another way, some egocentrically bully (looking at you Putin) decides he can't back down from a fight and drags my family into his own petty squabble with other nations.
Honestly, I feel like my answer would be to jail me. I feel like I should have a stronger sense of "defend the helpless" but my priority is my family first. I know that for countries who have mandatory service, saying no to the draft might seem odd (maybe?).
I suppose civil service is an option that avoids jail time, yet I still wrestle with the idea that a country who literally sees me as human livestock deserves anything from me.
I think I'm most scared for my son. At 41, I'd think the likelihood of getting drafted is low. He'll be 18 in just four years. As my only son though, isn't there a "carry on the family name" thing that would make him exempt? We have a daughter, but of course women are exempt from registering.
"I'm 47, obese, and I have the muscle tone of a veal calf. Still interested?"
I guess it all depends on the war in question, and also who's running it. I have said before that if a real war ever broke out between fascists and anti-fascists here within the States, I would be rushing to enlist on the good guys' side. Lord knows I haven't done anything else worthwhile with my life. But fighting Russia over some country half a world away? That sounds like just another Bush-era quagmire waiting to happen at best. Which is why Biden is trying so hard to avoid it. Yes, Putin is a scumbag who might be responsible for everything that's gone wrong in the US in the past several years, and if the two of us do come to blows, I hope he gets what's coming to him and then some. But I don't trust that that's a war anyone can win. Kinda hard to be motivated to fight a war when the threat of nuclear annihilation is constantly looming over your head, and the thought that you being there is only hastening its arrival.
My knees alone make me 4F.
Given the changed nature of warfare since Vietnam, I'm left to wonder if all of us physically unfit (yes, I count myself in there) could potentially be drafted into the Drone Corps
Drone training is expensive, and still requires that pilots meet physical training requirements. If the conditions existed to actually reinstate the use of the draft: it'll be a more conventional framing of war; and the majority of draftees would be frontline combatants unless they already had advanced technical training that could be exploited. Comp-sci majors and car mechanics would go into the technical side, while the art majors (and brick layers, and prison guards, farmers, accountants, janitors and just about everyone else you could think of.) would get a month of boot, a slap on the ass, and if they're really, really lucky: matching uniforms and weapons with ammo. Because if they actually get to the point to start calling up the selected service lists: the jive has already hit the fan and chances are the global economy is performing the single most epic stage dive turned crater you could think of.
There is no draft in canada. I didn't have to make any pledge to the military industrial complex at any point in my life. We had conscription during the second world war, and the government swore to never use it again (course, they also swore the income tax would be lifted when the war debts were paid, and we all saw how well that went.) but it remains an option and if things get so bad they need to apply it again: just run. They won't be able to waste resources hunting you down, and even if they did: it'll probably only be a year until the government collapses anyway.
There is no draft in canada. I didn't have to make any pledge to the military industrial complex at any point in my life. We had conscription during the second world war, and the government swore to never use it again (course, they also swore the income tax would be lifted when the war debts were paid, and we all saw how well that went.) but it remains an option and if things get so bad they need to apply it again: just run. They won't be able to waste resources hunting you down, and even if they did: it'll probably only be a year until the government collapses anyway.
World war 2.
Korea and vietnam were "police actions".
Korea and vietnam were "police actions".
Apparently, we wouldn't need "an actual war", given that soldiers were drafted to fight in Vietnam
All it really needs is enough politicians able to whip up enough of a frenzy over something. The main thing stopping anyone from doing it is that the US has been more or less in a constant state of war for the last sixty or seventy years, so they've just found other ways of tricking kids into going off to die instead. Like exorbitant higher education costs being subsidized by military service. It's made the draft unnecessary.
