From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Sun Apr 23 2000 - 20:27:25 MDT
EvMick@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 4/23/00 8:27:34 PM Central Daylight Time,
> retroman@turbont.net writes:
>
> > He goes into it later in the post. I personally can't dissagree witht
> > the logic either, even though I'm libertarian, I'm a libertarian of very
> > Spartan sentiments. A man who has nothing worth dying for has nothing
> > worth living for, IMNSHO. People who refuse to enlist or be drafted
> > ought to be stripped of citizenship, as far as I am concerned. If you
> > are contientious objector, thats fine, you can serve in the medical
> > corps or some other non-combat role. I would prefer people that are that
> > honest about their opinions than those who are a) cowards, b) too stupid
> > to understand that the best place to hide from a war is often in the
> > military. You are much more likely to be killed or injured if you are a
> > draftee than if you join up. When you join up voluntarily you have some
> > control over what you actually wind up doing, which can minimize your
> > risk as much as you care.
>
> ok...now explain the viet nam war (into which I was forcibly associated) in
> relation to the above sentiments..
If you had declared yourself as a contientious objector, the closest to
combat you could serve is as a combat medic (which tends in the end to
make you change your mind about things like that). If you were smart at
the time, you would have seen the odds, and enlisted in the Air Force,
the Coast Guard, the Air National Guard, or the Navy voluntarily, and
had some control over what job you got, and even stayed out of Vietnam
altogether.... A buddy of mine who was a Vietnam vet told me that one
time the selection guy at the draft center went down a line of sorry
draftees pointing at each in turn and just saying: "Army, Army, Army,
Navy, Marines, Army, Army, Army, Navy, Marines...." Draftees are
typically targeted for the infantry, i.e. cannon fodder, though those
with intelligence do sometimes get weeded out for real jobs.
I personally don't think that the baby boomer's general opposition to
the draft had much to do with principle, it was merely a snivling case
of cowardice in general. Most of these kids had been told by their
parents that their parents had fought WWII so that junior wouldn't have
to fight again, that kinda crap. Their opposition to the war had more to
do with their personal opposition to being drafted. You'll notice that
kids spent more time in college then than before or since. This isn't
something new. Isaac Azimov did the same thing during WWII, and wound up
getting stuck in research.
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