Reply #88: I'd be out of here

[American Tragedy]

My father drew the number 031 in the 1969 lottery, but escaped the draft via 4-F, something that I doubt I would be able to pull off. He convinced a physician to sign a medical release paper, because he knew that he couldn't bear to kill a bunch of poor Vietnamese people just to sustain the military-industrial complex and cover the moral cowardice of our politicians.

As I've said before, I absolutely don't believe that conscription will be reinstated again in the foreseeable future. The social and political ramifications would be catastrophic, and the administration benefits immensely from being able to cloak the price of war in the volunteer military. Right now, the invasion and occupation of Iraq is still just a television drama. If that were to change, the attitudes of most Americans would completely turn around. They know it, too.

Nevertheless, my parents, old hippies who are still justifiably scarred by their experiences in that era, have prepared for this contingency for the past twenty years. If the government ever says the word, I get a one-way ticket across the Atlantic.