What would you do if you were drafted?

[bluestateguy]

Imagine that it is the year 2005 and a Second Term George W. Bush brought back the draft to feed the war machine more warm bodies for pending wars in Iran and Syria (as well as the Iraq occupation).

You are drafted. What do you do?

(Remember there are no more college deferments, and crosing the border will be much harder this time)

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. prolly go to canada

or try to get a CO status

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. I could tell them that I was a pregnant lesbian

:evilgrin: or better yet ask to be placed in Jenna and Babs unit, then I'd serve

[Cerridwen]

10. You know . . .

I wonder how many heteros would suddenly "go gay"?

[Reverend_Smitty]

32. I know of at least one

me! Plus it will give them a taste of their own medicine with that stupid discriminatory policy

[taxidriver]

53. i'd go gay quicker than you could blink.

no problem.

[keopeli]

3. It depends entirely on who is elected President...I don't want to die!

[DarkPhenyx]

4. Fall down laughing.

I can't be drafted.

[Cooley Hurd]

5. I'd shit...

Cripes, I'm 38, w/ a bum leg.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

6. Being a 33 year old woman I doubt it would happen to me

but if it did, can I pick the option of raising my middle finger straight up in the air, then pointing out the myriad of ways I have and continue to serve my country?

Yep, that'll do it. Keep your immoral, unjust wars.

[knitter4democracy]

27. They're changing the draft rules

The new recommended rules state that they're upping the age limit to 34. Also, anyone in medicine has no age limit at all. Everyone will have to register--and tell them what field they're in. Languages and computers will be drafted first. They also want to get rid of a lot of the exemptions we've had in the past.

Frankly, I'd leave the country before I'd let them take my husband (a doctor) or my kids.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. If they want me at 53, we're in deep trouble

But I think back to Viet Nam. As a woman, I didn't have to worry about the draft then-but if I had, I would have followed up on the bumper sticker I had there, which said, "Support Our Boys In Canada".

[bluestateguy]

8. How about just saying "I have other priorities than military service"

Dammit, someday I want to be the Secretary of Defense, CEO of Halliburton and Vice President. Military service would only get in the way of those ambitions!

[Worst Username Ever]

9. Even though I do not support the cause, even though I dislike Bush

with a vengeance, when it is my turn to go, I go.

I think I heard a quote from a vietnam vet once... something to the effect of "You don't have to fire your rifle, you don't have to throw any grenades, so long as you are there in the trenches with us."

Besides, running and hiding, or having "other priorities" makes me no better than Bush. I don't recall Kerry leaving for Canada.

[HEFFA]

13. My reply was a smart-ass one, and then I read yours...

Damnit...you make a tremendous point.

[RummyTheDummy]

41. Except not firing your rifle or throwing grenades

Probably means you're coming home in a bag.

[HEFFA]

11. Suddenly --- I am SO Gay!!

I would go to the recruiter in my most fabulous outfit.

[trof]

14. I'm movin' in with Arwalden.

I don't think he'd say "no".
hee
;-)

[Worst Username Ever]

12. "They" say that if there is a draft, it will likely go up to age 36,

no exemptions for being gay or college or family etc. "They" do say a lot, don't they.

[trof]

15. I've heard 45.

Seriously.
Male and female.

[Literate Tar Heel]

24. where have you heard these ages?

in the bill that's actually been written, I thought it was only 18-26 or something like that

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

18. Whoa fricking WHOA!

Well that includes me and hubby in that case. So who takes care of our 10 year old daughter? We have no family nearby.

What if I told them I had a DEVASTATING sexually transmitted disease? Would they check to see if I was telling the truth?

Idjits.

[Worst Username Ever]

23. Oh yeah, you get the full physical before entering the military!

But I would be willing to bet one of you would get a hardship deferment..

[DemBones DemBones]

54. A lot of military couples have kids and I think only

one at a time is sent into a combat zone, leaving the other stateside with the kids.

If they're going to tighten up the rules so the rich kids have to go, they'll be taking a lot of other people, too.

[Monte Carlo]

16. Let's see... I'm not fleeing, and the gov't would catch me quickly...

... so I would say I would go.

[Jose Diablo]

17. Be inducted

then immediately file for medical retirement.

But I am a old fart, way past draft age.

Edit: Wait, I'd get a new pair of glasses and get my teeth worked on first, and a lifetime prescription for diabetes meds. LOL. It would be great. Anyone need a urine sample?

[Bread and Circus]

19. I'm a young doctor - potentially prime draft material...way to go Nader

Tweedle-dee indeed.

[Worst Username Ever]

25. Even better, they don't need a draft to make doctors/nurses go

Medical professionals can be pressed into military service without a draft. Oh yeah! Have some kool aid.

[amber dog democrat]

20. I already served in the Navy.

This would not affect me unless I ran afoul of a press gang !

[Bjornsdotter]

21. I'm too Old to be Drafted....but

I have 2 teens...so I'd move.

Cheers,
Kim :toast:

[MattNC]

22. serve

since working for the government is what I want to do after grad school. that being said, i'd probably just miss it since i'll be 24 when there is one.

[hvymtldrmr]

26. Turning 18 in less than 2 weeks ...

I would probably take the responsibility. No it's not fair that I would have to fight for hubristic reasons, but I also feel that it's not fair for the lower-middle class to be the ones fighting and carrying the burden of the administrations decision. It's a complex feeling, and often one that is emotional to me. It is difficult to articulate my point of view, however, I will try. Fleeing puts you into the same league as the men promoting this war, paradoxically, fighting makes you their tool. America could also be better united if a wide range of people are on the front lines, and in the long run EVERYONE will realize how terrible things are. And those who do not get drafted should stand up and speak out. Hopefully, I have made myself slightly clear.

[Jose Diablo]

28. Sigh

Unfortunately I understand all to well. Good luck and my prayers will be with you young-in's.

Damn, I hate war.

[Q3JR4]

29. I voted "other"

I'm 22 a college student with three years into a physics degree. If a draft is initiated, I'd probably be amongst the first to go.

The only way * can get back in is to steal another election. If he does that I'll gladly join a war.

The one that springs up to remove him from power.

[arwalden]

30. Depends On The President: Bush... I'd Resist or Flee. Kerry... I'd Serve.

If being drafted appeared to be imminent, I'd opt to enlist in the Navy or maybe the Air Force.

-- Allen

[Sandpiper]

31. Tell them to F**k Off and openly defy them

I will never pick up a weapon in the service of oppression or imperialism.

[Unperson 309]

48. AMEN!!!

while I was 4F for Vietnam, so the issue was moot, I have to say that had I been classified for duty, Id've taken off for Canada or simply REFUSED to serve. I told the Army fellow that. "I'd sit down and STAY sot down for the ENTIRE duration of my service! If that means the stockade and a Dishonorable Discharge, so be it! I WILL NOT CARRY A GUN! PEROID!"

I'd do the same EXACT thing today! Or go totally Section 8 batshit!
Walk into the Draft Board Office with peanut butter smeared all over my body and tell them it was the only way to keep the Martians from tunnelling inder my skin! Then I'd pee all over the floor.

Heeheeheehee! Almost makes me WISH I was still young enough to go through those damned examinations again!

309

[Sandpiper]

33. I'm astounded to see how many would have their blood spilled

To oil the gears of the Bush war machine.

[CalebHayes]

34. Have not made up my mind yet.

Either pull religion or go to war.

[More Than A Feeling]

35. Does having crappy vision get you a 4-F?

WIthout my glasses I am Mr. Magoo.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

36. I am almost legally blind

does that count?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

37. My 36 year old husband served

12 years in the Army, active duty, including six months in Desert Storm. He was wounded there and received the Purple Heart. He was in the infantry and has had to have multiple surgeries on his knees and ankles and back (the infantry is rather hard on a body, apparently). He has had a desk job for a while. Would they really draft HIM? He isn't even part of the Ready Reserve thing because he served more than eight years active duty!

[Rebellious Republican]

38. Ya know, I recieved my selective service notification at my FPO

address. I had already been in the Navy for 5 years at that point. Yeah my OIC got a kick out of it as well, he could'nt stop laughing and said it would be taken care of it. :crazy:

[Blue Wally]

69. yeah.....

Sometimes the paperwork doesn't get allthe way around. I was a company commander at Fort Hood in 1963 when my Michigan draft board told me to come in and get a physical. I wrote to them and asked if I could take it at the Ft Hood hospital.

[IronLionZion]

39. Canada or try to get an IT job in the Air Force

I'm thinking about that anyway, but only if Kerry is pres.

I'd rather not go to jail. Killing poor brown people is the worst thing I could do but I registered for the draft. (When Clinton was president and it looked like Gore would be next)

I'm no draft dodger, but I had no idea we'd have a neo-con fascist as president.

[Mordecai]

40. I'll become a draft dodger.

I'll never fight in a war. I'm a consciencious objector.

[newyawker99]

43. Hi Mordecai!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Nikia]

42. Get pregnant

I want to have a child in this life. I certainly wouldn't want to die in war without having the chance to become a mother.
I might be medically exempt from the draft even if it did include women my age. I have panic disorder. I don't think that's something that they would like to deal with.

[Unperson 309]

44. Laugh Myself Sick!

I am:

5'2"
Blind in one eye
Post surgical back (in a brace)
Sometime wheelchair user
Lumbar curvature
Neurologically impaired
Nearing Sixty!

Yeah, Uncle Sammie COME'N'GET ME!!!

[DemBones DemBones]

57. 5 '2" is tall enough to serve.

But, considering your age and medical problems, I don't think they'd want you. Nor would they want me, also for age and medical problems.

[bigbillhaywood]

45. I'd be conscripted. Then agitate while serving. Much like many of

the Russian and German anarchists and communists did during WWI.

[freedomonk]

46. lol, other

i am already in the army reserve. if and when the draft takes place, there would be a huandred mile line to get into reserves or national guard, as there was during vietnam...

[AlFrankenFan]

47. Serve n/t

[TahitiNut]

52. From the ad court?

[BiggJawn]

49. Poop my Pants...I'm 47 and a diabetic.

If they need me, we'd be in some DEEP shit!

[progressivebydesign]

50. Why would I let other people's children die in a war?

I would get inducted... gulp.

[Djinn]

55. any of those other children

could do the various things suggested in the post - if the war is unjust NO-ONE should serve in it.

Personally I'd just make sure I turned up to medical with that much illicit substance in my bloodstream they'd think twice...actually given what I've heard about pilots filled to the brim with bogan dust maybe that's nto such a great idea.

[wickerwoman]

67. What if there was a war and no one showed up?

I understand where you are coming from completely, but as long as people go along with a blatant injustice because they are ashamed of making someone else go along with it, nothing will change.

The war stops here and I refuse to be made ashamed of it.

[Cats Against Frist]

51. Well, they wouldn't have me

but if they did, I would flee -- because of my son. If it gets to that point, I might be gone, anyway.

If I didn't have a son, I would probably raise some hell.

[taxidriver]

56. i have bad kidneys, i'd never pass the physical.

plus, i'd be a flaming homosexual by then.

[foolmeonce]

58. hope my father can get me out and into politics

or is that loophole closing?

[taxidriver]

61. that's my plan. pretty much the same thing.

[Geo55]

59. For Dickheads war?

I'd show up with bells on my ears an' a dildo up my rears....
can do a pretty good scizophrenic too.

[xocolatl]

60. Since I'm 35....

... if I got drafted that would be evidence that our military was pretty desperate. The US would be so seriously fucked that it wouldn't really matter what I decided to do.

[TOhioLiberal]

62. Wonder if they are that hard up....

...43 yrs old by then. Bad back, bad eyes and overweight to boot. Are ya really that hard up?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

63. After I finished laughing, I'd be damned certain they were desperate.

Being 60 years old, an avowed socialist, anti-military vet, I'd probably toddle up to Canada and practice saying, "eh".

[bluestateguy]

64. I am disappointed by these results

Over a quarter of folks here say they would just be inducted. Maybe some of those folks are Sleeper Freepers, but apparently there are some DUers who would just go, simply because the government says they have to go. Some seem to think that if they don't serve some other kid would have to go in their place. Perhaps, but all individuals are persons of free will and the actions of one person should not be understood as forcing others to serve in uniform. Everybody has the option of resisting, dodging or compliantly being inducted.

[Swamp Rat]

65. I'd burn my fucking draft card on TV and dare the government to come

and get me. I'm too old and banged up to be useful on the battlefield so I have no worries, but if I were younger I would overtly resist. If they tried to induct me anyway, all it would take is one interview with me and they'd send me to the funny farm for two years. Then I could get a free law degree and write a book.

[wickerwoman]

66. I'm already out of the country.

What are the going to do? Come to China and get me?

I would move to a bigger place and take in as many drafted friends and relatives as could sleep on the floor.

[JSJ]

68. drafted soldiers had a good influence...

...on the Regular Army guys up until conscription was replaced with the all volunteer military we have now. That's one of the reasons I think the government would never allow forced enlistees to contaminate their 'carefully' recruited torturers, snipers, and criminals, now serving. Oh yeah, there's some troops who are good guys and they're all related to DU members or are friends of theirs. CYA!

[Blue Wally]

70. No they wouldn't

But someone with your sorry ass attitude would begreat for replacing the Haliburton contractors in operating the sanitary facilities. Without Haliburton the services would needlotsandlots of draftees to do the housekeeping and service jobs.

[JSJ]

71. yessir, Major ass-hole, sir!!! whatever you say, major!!

So, you're saying Haliburton is a necessary part of Bush's occupation? I mean, what exactly is it that you're trying to say, Major Ass-hole, sir!!

[Blue Wally]

72. I am saying..........

The beginning with SofD McNamara and continuing through the present day, we have more and more contractors doing military support jobs that used to be done by military personnel. This was escalated when Nixon did away with the draft and went to the "Modern Volunteer Army" in the early seventies.

Military personnel haven't done "kitchen police" for thirty year. Contractors do it for them. Stateside, contractors cut grass, clean streets, and do all of those "scut labor" things that soldiers used to hate. The Army doesnt train people for "rare bird" skills (those which require only a small number of people Army-wide). They use contractors for the job.

The sailors don't do much "busting rust" anymore, contractors do it when the ship comes in to dock. When a carrier leaves port on deployment, there are usually about a hundred or so contract technicians on board.

Overseas, the Army no longer has "gree suit" facilities engineering detachment, power generation detachments, or fire fighting detachments. They have standard contracts to "set up and operate" a 5,000 man base. haliburton (or rather the Brown and Root subsidiary) is probably the major contractor for these "facilities" deals and has been since the sixties (long before Haliburton bought them).

If you say "no more Haliburton", the day it becomes effective, you will need another 50,000 or so s0oldiers added to Iraq just for housekeeping (to include field sanitation and the digging and maintenance thereof).