In the event of a military draft, what would you do?

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

-Smedley Butler, Major General, US Marine Corps; the most decorated Marine in US history - as quoted from his book, War is a Racket.

 

Well they tried that in Vietnam, maybe not to that extent, but they did try it. We all know how that turned out. If I am going to have to get drafted, I don't want to have to rely on convicted criminals if I am dropped in to a war zone.

Also, whoever said that wars hurt the economy is very wrong. Wars make things go bling bling later on. Just read the excerpt from the Marine in the earlier post.

 

If a large enough group of other people found a legal, convenient and socially acceptable way to get out of it, I would probably try to as well. All due to cowardice, selfishness and laziness.

 

this


cept I aint *as* old as Behad.

just barely...Im 43


Now, granted, IF it came to it and they needed me...I would go. I just really really hope we aren't in such bad shape as to need a fat old hippy who is so out of shape he doesn't even play pickup ball anymore.

 

Feck off. Even I'm being called "old" these days, and I'm only 37!

 

embrace it bro!!!

40 is the new 30.

 

I believe the older generation should get drafted first.

 

I personally believe conflict should be resolved by a double-elimination round-robin leg wrestling tournament.

 

It depends on what we were fighting for. For example, if they had a draft for Bush's BS Iraq war....no way in hell.

 

I would serve proudly no questions asked. As "Jacked Up" as some of you believe this country is, it is still letting you do everything and become the people you are today.

Just dont use the excuse, "Well that rich politicians kid didnt have to go to the draft so why should I???"

Guess you should spend your upcoming years in the service blaming/hating your parents for slacking off in school and not becoming rich politicians.

At least when your time is up, you will be motivated to get a well paying job that might lead to politics so that your children wont be drafted.

 

All of the above, answer me this... if you are so certain you would serve if you were drafted, if your country needed you enough to institute a draft, then why aren't you serving now? You don't think your country needs you now? All of the grand pronouncements about a willingness to serve if "called" ring hollow considering that we are fighting two wars as we peck away at our keyboards. One started by a madman and his pals on 9/11, the other started by a madman the country "elected" to be president.

Sorry, but I think it is bull****. It is so easy to say you will serve if drafted when there is not a draft. Again, why wait? You are needed. Talk is cheap. Go enlist. And I take no pleasure in saying these things to people, in the main, that I have great respect for.

The one post I truly respect. Kudos. I know you did that, because I remember reading about your travails while trying to enlist here in Hangout. You, sir, are not a hypocrite.

Carry on? How hilarious. I was "carrying on" in the 1960's, protesting another stupid war, a war on a grand scale, both in numbers and in tragedy. I lost friends in that war, directly and indirectly. One didn't make it, and a couple of others became addicted to the cheap heroin the VC flooded the US military with in Vietnam, and were destroyed by it after they returned. A couple of others came home with ugly scars from being wounded. Interesting how many units were sent into combat again and again, while the majority were in the relative safety of support roles on bases and in the cities.

Son, I weighed in because I know a draft is a stupid idea, and if anything in this world is political, it is a ****ing draft. You want to tear this country apart? Bring back a draft. You want a military made up again of conscripts, the majority of whom can't do nearly as good a job as our professional military? Bring back a draft. The question is not "simple and vanilla." That would describe, with all due respect, the thinking behind the belief that it could be "simple and vanilla."

Again, talk is cheap. Why haven't you enlisted? What are you waiting for? If you are so freakin' patriotic, what's stopping you?

The rest of the posts were jokes, and understandably so, because that's the only way a draft could be discussed in Hangout... as a joke.

 

This war would be over if they just sent me.


One Gun. One Kam.

 

I fully admit that I want to part of any war.

If a draft was instituted, I would do anything I could to avoid it.

My late Grandfather was in WW2, and he instructed me to do so.

I am not a macho man who carries guns and has any delusions that the military is some sort of rite of passage into manhood.

I would totally p***y out.

 

It's not something I want to put ahead of my career... but I wouldn't be scared to fight for my country and die for it. Let me put it this way, it's something I want to do if it's asked of me to do it... It's not something I'd like to put ahead of my goals and dreams though. I can see where you're coming from by saying it's so easy to say it though... my response to this thread wasn't just as simple as pie... there's more to it... I stand by what I say.

 

Deckard, my friend...you know I have the greatest respect for you....seriously.

but you know better man....If you wanted to ask all those people this, you need to start a thread in the appropriate forum. That is gonna send this straight to D&D.

 

Holy crap, Deckard laid the smack down.


Bravo, Deckard..I enjoyed and agreed with that post.

 

No problem. As you might have figured out, this subject gets my dander up. I made my "list," made up, as I said, primarily of members I respect, to point out that there are consequences to a draft. You are a good example. You don't want to set aside your career, your dreams, your future to enlist and fight in the conflicts currently being waged by our volunteer forces. In other words, you have a choice. What a draft does, unless there are ways to "escape" being drafted (and there were ways back then, I can tell you), is take away that choice. Your future is in the hands of the government. You go when and where they want you to go. It matters not if you firmly believe the conflict is a mad adventure undertaken by an incompetent US government, whatever that conflict might be, now or in the future. It matters not if you have plans a few years in the military would derail. There is no choice. That choice is taken away and it could mean your life. It could mean months, years, or the rest of your life in a VA hospital. It could mean your family being at the mercy of housing provided by a military establishment more interested in multi-billion dollar defense contracts, than in giving your spouse and kids a proper place to live, and a salary that provides a good life for them.

I could go on. You think the US is divided now? A draft would mean tens of thousands marching in the streets, not only those facing it, but their parents, and the rest of those agonizing over a kid being torn away from that future you're concerned about. The internal conflict inevitable in this country if a draft is reinstituted is not something a sane person should want to bring about. Anyone can think of a scenario where a draft might make sense. A "doomsday" scenario where we have hordes poised to flood across our borders and take from us that which we love. That isn't the case today and is highly unlikely to be the case in the foreseeable future. If this country had the desire and the political will, along with the willingness to suffer the consequences, we could make a parking lot out of almost any country on the globe. We don't need a huge military establishment. We need a larger military than we have today, but we can afford to expand our volunteer military if we want to.

There is no need for a draft, and chest-thumping about how one would "go if called," when there is a need for intelligent, motivated people today to fight two on-going conflicts, makes all that talk just what it is... talk on a message board.

 

R2K, my point is that this isn't a subject that can be discussed here, because it is inherently political. But I bow to Your Crewness.

I will depart the thread.

 

Well... of course you'd be forced to go if a draft were to take place. Really.. all I was trying to say here was that I wouldn't be scared to serve... I see where you are going with it though. I was just trying to answer the OP's question of what he asked... it's not something I would be looking to do. But that is all what it is... talk on a message board. But what I said, I said it with truth, I didn't just write it as a blow off or as a joke.

 

I would quickly find my old indian passport and green card and declare my indian nationality again


we indians aren't meant for fighting wars

if we were we'd already have taken out pakistan by now