I came here to talk about the draft

[balmofgilead]

Props to anyone who got the reference in the subject line.

DISCUSSION QUESTION:
What do you think about the idea of a military draft, both a) in general and b) specifically now?

Random pieces of information:

1) I personally am opposed to the current war stuff going on in Iraq (Is it still a war? Did we "win"?), which prompts me to cursorily condemn the idea of a draft.

2) Someone recently told me that they believe a draft would/could be a good thing.
Their logic was as follows: if there's a draft, people from all walks of life will be fighting (including children and relatives and family friends of the warmongering politicians and businesspeople), and this will cause The People In Charge to act more moderately/responsibly and give more thought and consideration to what they're doing. The assumption was that the military currently consists largely of poor people and minorities, and that The People In Charge may (sadly) view these people as more expendable than, say, middle-class white people.

3) There are more things I could say, but instead I'll shut up and see what people say/think.

Comments

[balmofgilead.livejournal.com]

You have a point about the inevitable loopholes. I should have left out the part about "friends and family"--now that I think about it, I think the person was more intending that if the war directly affected more people, there would be more pressure on politicians to make wiser and more reasonable decisions (for lack of a better way to phrase it).

Obviously I wouldn't want to be drafted or have my friends drafted either, were they to reinstate the draft, but when I take a step back from it, I think it might be out of selfishness rather than idealism. That makes me uncomfortable; if it were a war I considered "necessary," how would I feel? If the bottom line is that people will get sent over to a dangerous place where they'd rather not be, how is it justifiable that I believe that the people I know shouldn't be sent? Why should it matter who's getting sent?