I hope you are right but I believe you are wrong.

I think it would be quite easy for the administration to convince the population in general of the need for a draft.

 

As much as I think this administration has done a masterful job of playing on the emotions of the general population, I think they have been able to do so in large measure because it's easy to convince people of something that doesn't directly impact them or is being done at will.

I think that dynamic drastically changes when the electorate is faced with the idea that they could be pulled from their comfy beds and stable (and safe) jobs to be thrown into the fray.

It's easy to talk about supporting a war when you don't have to participate. When you're called to serve it's a much harder sell.

If a draft came to a vote I think you'd find that the vote wouldn't be as close as this past Presidential election might make you think.

 

[QUOTE=brantshali,Dec 19 2004, 04:56 PM] As much as I think this administration has done a masterful job of playing on the emotions of the general population, I think they have been able to do so in large measure because it's easy to convince people of something that doesn't directly impact them or is being done at will.

 

I escaped the draft in the early 70's with a student deferment. In California at that time, you could attend community college basically for free, except for textbooks. So most anyone could have done the same, regardless of your family's wealth or lack of.

If you remember, during the late 60's and early 70's, many recruiters were found to have helped people pass the necessary tests and pulled other shenanigans to meet the recruiting quotas. The Vietnam war was not popular at that point.

And then there was the lottery, I guess also supposed to make things more fair. I can remember huddling around the TV. One lucky guy in our group won the number 1 spot. He ran out of the room screaming. I was drawn number 47 but the war and draft ended before they got to me.

I believe there would be great opposition to a draft. Everyone I know with a child has said they would not want their child fighting in Iraq.

 

In effect then you think it would be better for the anti Iraq policy believers to support and promote a draft. Then faced with the reality it would change. Interesting.

One of the things to consider, should a draft come about is that not only will gender discrimination be an issue but also age. There's no law that says draftees have to be young. We have a very technological military and educated support staff would need to be found.

Imagine drafting UPS for Supcom They're already in brown.

My draft number was 121. I found that out sitting on a mountainside in Vietnam. I remember one guy who came in 346 and never would have had to have gone.

I support the war in Iraq. I cannot see myself ever supporting another draft.

fltsfshr

 

Gary

I was classified #9 in the first draft lottery. My student deferment ended at the end of August 1973. I had three appeals based on some severe injuries I'd suffered in a motorcycle accident a year earlier. All three were rejected. I passed the physical and the mental exams (I was offered officers training if I'd sign up. My reply wasn't very nice). I was that close to being drafted when Nixon announced the end of the draft.

Back in those days the draft board in Brooklyn, composed of mostly older men, divided up the borough much like a pie so that every district got a piece of the poor neighborhoods of Brownsville/East New York and Bedford Stuyvesent. This way they had a steady flow of draftees. It was about as unfair as it could be. None the less, the draft boards saw their job as supplying draftees, and they did everything possible to meet their quotas.

I agree with you that no one with kids of or around draftable age wants their kids drafted to serve in Iraq, but, no one that I know supports the war in Iraq either yet we are there.

 

I visited the Army recruiter in the early 70's who gave me an elementary written test, and declared me the smartest guy he'd ever seen. If I would only sign on the dotted line, I would be an officer sure as shootin'. I decided if I was the smartest guy he'd ever seen, then I'd rather take my chances with the draft.

Those were difficult times. While the antiwar protests were getting all the press, I suspect most young men were like me, torn between some sense of duty to country and the strong feeling that this Vietnam war didn't make much sense. I would imagine that many young people feel the same today about Iraq.

On a lighter note, Arlo Guthrie has another version of Alice's Restaurant. It's same as the old one with some extra at the end. He says Chip Carter, son of Jimmy, told him they found a copy of the Alice's Restaurant album when they moved into the White House. Arlo claims the length of his song on the album and the gap in the Nixon tapes is exactly the same to the second.

 

So you lost three appeals and were still going to be drafted.

I lost my deferment by taking a jaunt to Europe in the middle of a Spring quarter. I sure had a good time. When I got back I was 1a. Rather than wait, I volunteered. I spent 1 year 9 months and 16 days with Uncle Sam.

I didn't like it one bit but I didn't want to hang around and wait either. That was in 1968. Glad you didn't have to go. I felt like cannon fodder for a year. That's why I won't support a draft. I believe in an all volunteer army.

fltsfshr

 

I don't know what I would have done. I was pretty determined not to go to Vietnam. Luckily for me, the draft ended. That really was a terrible period in our history.

Like you, I don't and will not support a draft. Unfortunately, I'm not quite as optimistic as you, Brant and Smokee are. I think we've gotten ourselves into a situation that will give rise to a draft. And I think that we've got a president who will not listen to the will of the people.

 

Lucky bastard. I enlisted to avoid being drafted probably about the same time that you were filing your appeals.
My memory sure isn't what it used to be. I checked my records, and I shipped out in '72 not '73.

Dean