reinstating the draft

and where am i limiting your right to free speech? you're perfectly free to say your approve of a draft, and i'm perfectly free to argue against it.

equally i'm perfectly free to point out that if your unhappy with whats laid out in the constiutution and its amendments, your free to find another nation.

as for the US being a democracy, uh-uh, its not - its a constitutional republic. its already been deemed in court that the US public cannot vote in a leader, they can merely use the vote to inform their states members of the electoral college how they would like them to vote.

the electoral college is under no burden to actually follow the publics desires on who they cast their vote for.

incidentally most of the folk i find pro-draft also happen to be those happy to limit those freedoms you mention such as flag-burning, its nice to know that at least one pro-draft bod understands the importance of such freedoms.

Right on!

This idea seems on the outset like a bad idea.

I think it would make youth with no direction other than to drop out of school and join a gang either buck up and go to college or learn some discepline and maybe some pride in their self.

Now realistically the Clinton presidency has closed so many bases I don't think they realistically can house the new draftees.

As for the people on this site, it seems most are college age kids so this would mean you probably will still go to college to avoid the draft instead of doing it to get out of town to 'PAR'Tay'!

I'd support it but i volunteered in '77 and felt it was a good place for me to learn limits, responsibility, and how to take acid and do laundry at a coin-op laundromat. fun! woooo!

bring the troops (kids home)

What bugs me most about the draft is how the government likes to treat veterans once they get back. They glorify you in the media as "freedom fighters" and the "nation's best" when your out their but once you get back and are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and unable to get a job cause of it in a failing economy, well whose there to pay you back for what you gave? Nada. And then there's crap like "Agent Orange", and "Gulf War Syndrome" (what's the death toll from that at now, 8,000?). No wonder people like the DC sniper are often war vets (interesting how they never seem to stress that about the sniper in the media)...to me it's an insult to demand I serve under such conditions. I mean maybe if they bothered to treat you like a human being and not a machine to meet political ends, I still wouldn't serve but at least I could see the point. As it stands it's just disgusting...I'd rather be executed on spot than be treated like vermin. Though as it stands if we get to the point where I'm drafted (with a legitimate psychotic break on my medical record) I know we'd be in pretty bad shape and the draft would be the least of my (or anyone elses) problems...

add to that i'm not much good with being given orders w/ a rifle in my hands, i'd happily refer them to the film "Full Metal Jacket" for an example of what is likely to happen ...

[Edited on Nov 28, 2003 by hymalaia]

I for one am against the draft. i would not wish service on anyone. i am in it! not where i want to be thats for sure. But there will always be people like me trying to straighten up their lives and turn to a military service for that...even if i now think it was the bigest mistake of my life to date..i am dealing and so would people who would get drafted..ethier that or get out with a permenant criminal record or medical record. So if they did start drafting.. it wouldnt be that big of a deal i assume..........err no wait it would.

this is recockulas. dont we have enough people signing up everyday?

the draft may not be such a bad idea for the male youth of today...draftees made damn good soldiers for the most part and they would be the dose of reality the military branches need instead of the ineffectual suck ass lifers who have driven the system...as for gals in the military...NO WAY...did we not learn anything from the jessica lynch story, or the other stories of woman being raped after being shot down??!!??...all for the equality stuff but let the gals serve cheeseburgers to the boys after the mission and keep them off the front line.

I think we ought to have a peace military for voulnteers, where people could spend a year working on civil service projects like a lot of people have brought up by this point, which in addition to producing the results of their work would also teach kids job skills, discipline, cooperation, and a sense of their national community. In the process, the volunteers could be taught other useful life skills as self defense, first aid & CPR, and other emergency survival skills. And then of course some people could stay in as a career and learn further skills and do further work. With all this talk about the department of homeland security, I have to wonder how secure of a homeland would we have if every adult had the opportunity to be trained how to fight off a mugger or rapist, how to care for accident victims, how to rescue a drowning victim, and how to evacuate a burning building? We're already the wealthiest and mightiest country the world has ever seen, so I think the responsible thing to do with all our money and power would to be to make ourselves the most powerful peace force the world has ever seen too. If such a thing existed, I'd join it. Instead of a military industrial complex, why not a peace industrial complex?

[Edited on Nov 30, 2003 by DrKnievel]

*backs away, slowly and quietly, around the nearest corner*

apparently not...Let's just bail, Canada here we go!

Again ... the argument is that the volunteer army is disproportionately made up of the poor and minorities. The draft is supposed to be a way to make everyone participate. This is actually a liberal issue. Bringing back the draft is usually something Democrats occassionally discuss -- no kidding.

I don't agree with forcing people to serve in the military, but I think some required service to country is a good idea. I think the options should include working in schools, free clinics, national parks, and projects that will directly impact local communities. Service is good for everyone, especially the person who is doing the work.