Friday, October 01, 2004

Bringing Back the Draft?

commentary from sheenid.blogspot.com
I would favor a draft if it were a fair system. I don't think there's anything wrong with the idea that people contribute equally to something like the national defense. People will fight for things they believe in. If, however, people feel their leaders haven't provided the justification for war, they'll be less inclined to endorse it. If they feel it's immoral, they'll resist in the ways we saw during the Vietnam War, making it impossible for the government to pursue the war past a certain point (I think a fair draft could have ended it earlier). A draft presumes that everyone has a duty to defend their nation, but it also encourages popular opposition to misadventures that too frequently don't fall under that description.

3 comments:

Sheryl said...

It shouldn't be necessary. Like I said in Tom Cleland's blog, if we just enacted the "Leave No Elite Behind Act of 2005" that requires that anyone with more than say $500,000 worth of assets is automatically enlisted, then I think these wars would end pretty damn quickly.

X said...

As I stated on his site,
I too served, and here's my observations. Pro- you do bring in the necessary cannon fodder. You do thin out the poor and lower class.

Con-- you further divide the classes. But most important of all, and you have to agree with me on this Gecko, as will most people who served in Vietnam --Morale, and "it". What is "it"? Well, it's when you decide to volunteer. You make that decision. You think it's the best choice. You want to be a soldier. You want to do good, and serve your country. Many soldiers were drafted into service in Vietnam, and proportionally they were poor and lower class-which is why I stated the previous comments. However there were draftees who didn't want to go but were pressured by family, friends, society, etc.. and went. They were not the kind of soldiers I would trust. Give me my All-volunteer army in any firefight and I will trust them. Throw together a bunch of people who don't support the system, current president or war, etc.. and I will not trust them.. You lose unit cohession, and even the army knows how important that is, that's why they have cohort units.

You don't need to enlist the people in a war, unless they don't agree with the purpose. i.e. Vietnam, Iraq.

Sheryl said...

Hey, Ryan!!

[Knock, knock, knock!!!]

More Lady Poverty!!! More Lady Poverty!!! (Clink, clink, clink. What if I go into withdrawl?)

So tell us what you are doing in the Reform Caucus? Is that what you been doin' lately? I like how you changed your profile and said you are against occupation--nice touch.