RED DAVE

The draft is serious, no joke. It's not difficult to avoid if you want to avoid it and you get political help.

The big problem with the draft in the Sixties was the ease by which middle class types (like me) avoided it, and how it swept through the working class. It's easier to organize draft evasion on a college campus than in a neighborhood. We tried very hard to accomplish the latter in the Sixties and failed.

It was only when large numbers of middle classes kids (and we were kids) were finally getting drafted that the thing was halted by popular pressure.

Shortly after that, the Army began to fall apart.

Here's a goos article about it all.

The Soldiers' Revolt

RED DAVE

snoiduspoitus

Drafts are of course entirely necessary at certain times and are not inherently evil, but such drafts are necessarily subject to the political view of the draftee as well as the government.

Without popular support, any war is lost before it ever began.

AdamWho

Maybe people missed the reason Chuck suggested starting the draft:
It is to take the wind out of the war mongers. He is against the militarism of the Bush administration and knows that fears of a draft will refocus people on the realities of war. People will not stand behind Bush if it means their kids will have to go to war. A draft will never occur for many reasons; it is a bad idea militarily and really bad idea politically.

Worries about a draft are unfounded and I think that Chuck is doing a great job raising the political stakes of war.

John Hancock

Yes and that's exactly why I support a draft. Must of this nation's slugs don't even vote.

Martin Buber :banghead:

snoiduspoitus

To be succinct, the draft just might go a long way toward an understanding of the sufferings of the soldier.

damn_wookie

Yes and no; currently one would only get a deferrment until the end of the present semester. But, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

Read more here:
draft

damn_wookie

Yes and no; currently one would only get a deferrment until the end of the present semester. But, I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

Read more here:
draft

Psycho Economist

I did a lot of reading about conscription between when i was getting threatening letters about not registering after the post office clerk-in-training mishandled my paperwork. Most of it on the Selective Service System website. You can register online, there. That's what I ended up doing.

1. You have to register when you're 18, no matter what. If you're exempt or unfit for some reason, they'll settle it if and when they try and draft you.

2. They'll start drafting with 19 year-olds. If you're over 19, the only way they'll get you is if they've already gotten everyone who is 19 and fit for service. If you're under 19, they'll get you next year.

3. If you're in college, you get until the end of the semester. If you're within two semesters of graduation, you can complete your degree.

4. If you enroll in ROTC, you get deferred all the way through college, but then you automatically go when you're done... but with a comission, and maybe not in a combat-arms unit.

5. You cannot get conscientious objector status if you oppose a particular conflict, but not war in general. If you can't (for documented, pre-existing, ususally religious reasons) bring yourself to carry a gun, they'll put you into some type of support unit in the military... and you won't have a gun. (A lot of the field medics in Vietnam armed with only a white armband with a red plus-sign fell into this class of C.O.) If you are prohibited from military service (again, they ususally only accept religious excuses), you'll do some sort of non-military civil service for the duration.

6. How did Nixon, a Quaker, get to be an Annapolis grad, and an LCMR in the navy?

RED DAVE

Simple, he did the same thing A. Mitchell Palmer did, who organized the "Palmer Raids" and Red Scare of the early 1920s, and who was knows as "The Fighting Quaker."

He violated his belief system if he had any.

RED DAVE

so-crates

I don't recall this being true. The letter I got just said if you don't then you can't get Federal finacial aid for school.