Would The Draft Make Future Wars Less Likely?

[THUNDER HANDS]

And if it would, do you think you could support its reinstatement?

[ClassicDem]

1. there is no need for a draft,

if a war is honorable and just then people will enlist on a volunteer basis.

[jody]

2. You need a caveat so that the children of the obscenely wealthy serve.

I believe most people who support a draft imply a fair draft and that will not occur.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. Well, I still think it would be the poor that would be screwed.

The poor would be the ones drafted. The rich kids would get out of it like they did during Vietnam. And therefore, Republicans would still be rushing to get us into war.

[stray cat]

4. We would not be in Iraq if the Bush daughters would have to serve

If a draft were truly equitable - and that would be difficult. It would definitely hamper the neocons rush to war. Most of them avoid fighting any of their own battles and likely feel the same way about their children.

[Warpy]

5. A peacetime draft allowed Johnson to escalate Vietnam

into a full scale slaughter.

NO to a draft. Not unless this country is attacked on our soil and our backs are to the wall and the sons of the neocon rich are needed to fight.

The only thing clipping Stupid's imperial wings is a lack of a huge military manpower pool.

NO DRAFT. Don't give this sack of shit access to a large army. Not now. Not ever.

[mopinko]

6. oops

confusing wording. i meant to say, it would make war less likely, and i support it.
argh. i am trying to answer this question, and am chasing my tail.
i preface this thinking by saying that i speak as a citizen of planet earth. the rules in raptureland are obviously very different.
i don't support having wars at all. but if we must, it should be fairer than fair. no more rich man's war, poor man's fight.
conscript army, all volunteer army, a mercenary army. i think each brings a different moral arithmetic. i admit that a distinction like this is not even imaginable to these assholes. maybe all warmakers are the same. but among honorable leaders, this is how i think it would/should work.
but nothing makes any fucking sense any more.
edited to add, of course, only a fair draft would be acceptible AT ALL. draft the bush tiwns FIRST!!

[mopinko]

14. thanks to this thread

for noodging me into getting around to this button.

[RC]

7. No, but

impeachment for war crimes would.

[Tace]

8. Chomsky Argues That A Draft Would Increase Public Opposition...

to war.

[Warpy]

10. Chomsky has a short memory, then.

It took YEARS AND YEARS, and I don't think we ever really got a majoriity of people against Vietnam, although we did get a "peace with honor, ASAP" majority.

[Orsino]

9. No.

Democratic representation of the people, with no special considerations to rulers of the military-industrial complex, would.

[KharmaTrain]

11. Some Didn't Learn From Nam...

We are now doomed to repeat virtually every bad lesson of this war as well as those set upon the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 80's. We've got a regime hellbent on prosecuting this ugly invasion with wreckless abandon and have both unlimited funds (our money) and power to do as they see fit.

Right now we get this myth that the volunteer military is doing what it's designed to do. No it isn't. It wasn't designed to invade, it was intended to defend. Now it's in a even worse role...playing police...a role it was never trained for and performing poorly. Last November ensured there'll be American troops in Baghdad on 1/20/09 and probably beyond...unless we're chased out first. Either way, the current military isn't big enough to handle the long-term drain this incursion (and others) will require.

I'm in favor of reinstating the draft strictly to get a very, very loud message to young people and their families about what war really is. It's not a video game, it's not something someone's kid who does the dying and it's destroying the ethical soul of this country. If waking these people up with the possibility their asses could get shot off, I'm all for it. I grew up in the Nam era with the draft hanging over my head...it sure was a great incentive (even though not a sure thing in 1970) to get good grades to stay clear of being hauled in.

I know there are those here right in that line of fire and that a draft would mean you could be dragged in, but that's not the mindset of the sheeple and the "majority" of this country. They like this ugly war, they support this immoral regime...maybe they're gonna need real blood on their hands (their own) to finally turn things around here.

[THUNDER HANDS]

12. i guess i should include my opinion

I think its unfair what's being done to the troops. I started a thread in the Lounge, I don't know how many people saw it, but it was about the fact that I work at Wal-Mart.

This weekend I rang up a purchase from a man who bought 60 phone cards for troops stationed in Baghdad, outside the Green Zone.

Its unbelievable that these kids have to rely on citizens helping them out in order to phone home.

I think Americans need to see this war, and feel it on a much larger scale than what we're witnessing right now. Unless you know someone personally whose in Iraq you have no idea what its like.

This might as well just be another movie or just another tv show to most Americans. It doesn't effect them personally.

Reinstating the draft would make war personal. And in a post-Vietnam era, I think opposition to war would forment much quicker if the average Joe or Jane American were in danger of having their own kids shipped off to fight.

[BamaGirl]

13. I'm all for the draft

I was in the Army, my husband just finished a TWO YEAR deployment a few months ago, and if the Pentagon has its way will be doing another two soon. I'm for this for a couple of reasons. One, I just think everyone should be required to serve in some capacity. Make it military, the Peace Corps, I don't care as long as they are required to serve in some non-political way. I meet entirely too many people who have no knowledge of what it is like to be an enlisted soldier or family member or very poor. Almost to the person they are Reps. Imagine that. :eyes: Despite our problems we are the most fortunate people on the planet. Not being exposed to the other side is definitely not serving us as a people or in our foreign policy. Every single person I talk to over the age of 70 is a Dem. And I'm in freaking Alabama. That's because they have personal knowledge of hardship. They remember the Depression or WWII. Younger generations that I know, Boomer and down, mostly have never know real hardship. A lot of people I know need that exposure to understand why we have the system we do.

Second, I think as soon as all these idiots who voted for *, the vast majority of whom are NOT rich and NOT getting out of it, realize they or their kids could go there will be an outcry against the war across the country. Less than 5% of American citizens are in the military. Too many people are not closely touched by this war. Change that, and you change everything.

[H2O Man]

15. The draft

will make expanded theater of war much, much more likely.

[Sympleesmshn]

17. I agree

If the draft started again, there would be an "endless" pool of "bodies" to draw from. I think Bush would take the draft as a signal he can start any war he chooses.

[imenja]

19. in the short term, yes

It would allow Bush to commit forces to Iraq, Syria, and wherever else he plans on conquering. But after a year or two, public opposition would undermine support for war. It's easy for people to support a war when they themselves have nothing at stake.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. As a vet who fought the draft in the '60's, I think we should have it.

To most of the public, the war is a video game played on TV. With the draft, it comes home. Not only that, draftees are a helluva lot less reliable then volunteers.

I regret to say it, but the draft is the reality card that shows what the military really is rather than the photogenic, glorified, version that the public is fed.

[imenja]

18. to me it seems obvious that a draft makes war more difficult

It's easy for people to support war when they have nothing to lose by doing so. If everyone below a certain age, men and women, are compelled to serve, without exemption for wealth, the government will have to think more about the consequences of their actions. With a draft, support for the Iraq war would be 20% max.

[K-W]

20. Short term yes, long term no.

Its a two edged sword, it humanizes the military but militarizes the humans :/

[welshTerrier2]

21. oh please no ... not again ...

it's bad enough that they chew us up in the cogs of their corporate gears ... let's not allow them to make us give our lives to do their greedy bidding ...

look, i loved the swelling of our ranks that a draft brought during Vietnam ... but i cannot imagine how anyone could truly advocate conscription when wars are declared to serve only those who declare them and those who pay to have them declared ...

the opposition would grow in strength and in numbers, but many who see the wrongs would still be forced to give their lives ...