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Journal freejung's Journal: The New Draft 8

Journal by freejung
A friend just referred me to this hideous piece of... legislation which was introduced in 2003 and has been sitting in the Armed Services Committee, presumably pending reintroduction after the election.

I can't even begin to tell you how horrible I think this sort of thing is. I'm sure you can figure out why for yourself, but just a couple of points to consider:

Under this bill, even conscientious objectors would be forced to perform services in support of war.

The period of military service can be extended essentially arbitrarily by the president.

The draft is a horribly bad idea even from a conservative standpoint: a drafted army is more likely to disobey orders, to fold under pressure, to desert, and to oppose war when they return from service.

It ought to be obvious that it is hideously immoral to force people to support and fight in wars that they don't believe in. Conscription is one of the issues over which we supposedly fought the revolutionary war in the first place, and if this passes, we can add it to our grievances against the current King George and his cronies.

This is yet another reason why we have to break the Republican stranglehold on power.

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The New Draft More

The New Draft

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  • Fritz Hollings is nominally a Democrat.

    Of course so was Zel Miller.

    That said, I agree that defeating Bush is essential in averting a new Draft.
    • Nominally. But I seriously doubt a Democrat-dominated Senate would pass such a thing. I could be wrong, the Democrats have surprised me before.

    • Fritz Hollings is nominally a Democrat.

      What's this "nominally" stuff? He is a Democrat. So is Miller. There's no good in trying to pretend otherwise, and considerable harm. I'm reminded of the words of Malcolm X:

      They blame the Dixiecrats. What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise. The titular head of the Democrats is also the head of the Dixiecrats, because the Dixiecrats are a part of the Democratic Party. The Democrats have never kicked the Dixiecrats out of t

  • I changed my mind on this issue a couple yars ago. I actually see advantages to a draftee army now.

    Draftees a lot harder to send to war.

    No one would have the excuse that "they're all volunteers, so they knew the risks" when they send draftees to get their legs blown off.

    If the draft represented a more complete cross-section of society, there would be a lot more rich families who had kids in the service. As it is, the volunteer military amounts to a regressive tax payable in blood: poor families send a lo
    • I agree that there are these advantages.

      However, I think they are more than offset by the sheer increase in potential military power that this gives to the US. Look at it this way: one avenue of resistance we have open to us now is to simply refuse to serve in the military. More and more soldiers are refusing to reinlist, and the military is having trouble meeting its quotas. Because of this, the military gets overstretched and this discourages further military action.

      In other words, while a draft might

  • I saw an interview with the Dem representative sponsoring this bill. He is not endorsing it, and he introduced it solely as a protest against Iraq.

    It is not intended to be viable in the legislature nor is it intended to be passed. The representative himself is opposed to the draft.

    So if you are trying to read more into the bill than that... you are on the wrong track.

    jason
    • I've been trolled by Fritz Hollings? Oh no! LOL! That's fantastic!

      I think it's really cool that he would introduce a piece of obviously bad legislation as a form of protest.

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