If the draft is brought back will kids just obediently march off to war?

[bluestateguy]

We hear a lot of talk on this board about the draft and draft resistence. Sometimes, however, I wonder if most of the people talking about draft resistence are either not of draft age, or if they are, they represent a minority of their generation. First, a point of information: By the year 2005, when the draft notices start going out, almost all people of draft age will be part of the so-called Millenial Generation, or Generation Y; widely believed to have begun with those born in 1982. We hear a lot of talk from people who study generations that this generation is much different from my own Generation X. The Y Generation is said to be less rebellious, more conformist, more clean cut and most importantly, they are said to be much more deferential to AUTHORITY than the Baby Boomers or Xers were. That is what concerns me. I am worried that if there is a draft, most of the protesting will come from those generations that are not going to be drafted (yes, I know there are exceptions right here on DU, so let's not even beat that horse). I fear that kids of Generation Y will simply let themselves get conscripted into George W. Bush's army because they believe it to somehow be their "patriotic duty", or simply because the nation's leaders tell them they have to go.

[wtmusic]

1. I'm more worried no one will want to serve

after the Iraq debacle. I sure as hell wouldn't.

[dsc]

2. I work in schools and I can tell you now that is a total crock

They may respect the law but all authority not on your life.

[eileen_d]

3. well, that generation pigeonholing tends to be BS

"Generation X" was a joke to me, and I'm allegedly a part of it. I see no reason why "Generation Y" should be any different.

However, all the negative stuff said about baby boomers is spot-on... JUST KIDDING. JUST KIDDING! :evilgrin:

[JohnKleeb]

4. I would flee

I cant be drafted with my heart condition though.

[OneBlueSky]

5. some will . . . many won't . . .

those who have been thoroughly indoctrinated will march off to war like little automatons . . . many, however, will take exception to this intrusion on they comfortable middle class lives, and particularly to the possiblity that they themselves could be maimed or killed while protecting corporate profits . . . how they will manifest their disgust with the notion of going off to kill a few Arabs is anyone's guess at this point . . . but I envision a lot of activisim among young people, something we haven't seen in many years . . .

[eileen_d]

6. Some will go willingly

I object to your use of the word "automatons" -- I imagine that some draftees, like some currently volunteering in the military, will accept the draft as a call to serve their country that they feel morally obligated to accept, no matter their opinion of the current Iraq mess. Not everyone who accepts the draft is one of the so-called "sheeple"

[bearfartinthewoods]

20. i heard an interesting statistic last week. if true, 75% of those who

were in the military during Vietnam were volunteers. in many families, mil.service is a tradition passed down, and expected.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. I think that in any generation, most young men will do military

service if it's expected of them. It hasn't been expected of Americans for thirty years so there's less of a tradition for it. I don't know how much principled resistance there will be.

[JohnKleeb]

9. depends honestly DBDB

If it were like WWII, I would enlist but this is so wrong. Plus in WWII I would be doing a simliar thing to my relative, Strank who enlisted for his homeland. Some of my family were occupied by the Nazis, and sadly one died too. If it were this war or Nam, I wouldnt go.

[eileen_d]

10. You're a good representation

of the complexities of the issue, IMO. I am glad to know there will be some resistance from those of draft age, although I never doubted it really...

[JohnKleeb]

14. It is complex

I envision that the ROTC kids would go.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. The Nam generation served

in the begining with no problem

I will bet we will see a similar pattern, until the kids
realize what is at stake

Also the media has made war all about honor and glory... and
for that I plea guilty as part of that media... hence why now my
fiction reflects war for the horror it is.

(Of course there are times that war is necessary... but not the
Iraq war, that said these days when playing wiht war honor and glory
are gone, and they have been replaced by the truth... and I am sure
many of these kids will not believe hte horrors until they themselves
face them.)

One of my theories on war is that we have a major war every two generatins or so because that is how long it takes those who were there done that too forget or loose influence... if you get my drift.

I mean when Saving Private Ryan came out it was critized for being too realistic... been there done that, it was close but no cigar... war is ten times as bad... worst than anything anybody can imagine or try to portray in fiction.

[depakid]

11. From my observations of the Y generation- they'll go blindly

I agree with the analysts- even many of the so called "rebels" are lost souls, and would pack off and go into the military just for some direction. Should a draft be reimposed, I suspect that the resistence will come as much if not more from the clean-cut, ambitious types as from the slackers, because they've been brought up on a culture of "I wan't, I want, I want" to the excluson of pretty much everything else. The sorry state of the corporate media and the abysmal state of public education have made their imprint- and it isn't pretty.

We gen-x'rs have taken a lot of criticism for things, but when I look around at us- I don't see half as many sell outs among us as there as I see from the children of the 60's, and I think it's going to fall on us to clean up a lot of their messes- including trying to protect these kids from the Republican society that they helped create.

[dreissig]

12. Yes They Will

Soldiering comes naturally, and it has its rewards, like drinking and fucking. Guys take to it like a duck takes to water.

Vietnam wasn't about anything important. To this day nobody can say for sure what it was intended to accomplish. Despite this, the military never had a problem getting conscripted manpower.

[ender]

15. yeh well...

> Despite this, the military never had a problem getting conscripted
>manpower.

that whole "force of law" thing backing conscription up may have somethign to do with it.

[dreissig]

27. Force of Law

Believe it or not, young guys like being soldiers. It's a great adventure, then they get dumped into places like Vietnam and Iraq. Then it's not such a lark.

[LoneStarLiberal]

13. Probably

First, good post!

Second, there were strong, robust efforts made at organizing draft resistance during the Vietnam era. As mass movements, all of them failed.

With crumbling public education, slick advertising by the armed forces, and a surfeit of misdirected patriotism, I fear that the reinstitution of a draft would see less resistance from those to be drafted and more acceptance as "the thing to do."

[mb7588a]

16. I'm of draft age...

I must say, I know a lot of people who would, gladly "kill some towelheads." In fact, I know an MP in the Air Force stationed in Germany whose only regret in life is "not getting the chance to kill some towelheads." He's a little out there though. Heh.

Course, there were folks who wanted to do nothing more than kill Charlie. There were people like Ron Kovic who wanted to be like their fathers and fight for old glory - be Audi Murphy taking on a thousand Nazis all alone.

My own personal thoughts on being drafting, hell fucking no, not willingly: http://www.mbare.org/archives/000187.html#000187

Don't underestimate the organizational ability of my generation. It doesn't take much to get their attention and they sure as I am a liberal love their current splurging lifestyles.

Peace y'all.

[RamseyClark22]

17. we

shouldnt of used the draft during ww2, it made for bad fighters.

[CreekDog]

18. or march off to Canada...

One of my coworkers who has an 11 year old says that if they bring back the draft and it looks like his kids are vulnerable to it, he'll take the whole family to Canada.

I think he was referring to illegitmate wars like the one in Iraq and not in the case of a genuine national emergency.

[VOX]

22. Scarcasm, right?

Happy Pearl Harbor Day.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. I have a Gen Y daughter, and I agree, mb7588a --

"Don't underestimate the organizational ability of my generation. It doesn't take much to get their attention and they sure as I am a liberal love their current splurging lifestyles."

The first studies of this generation give me hope. (For starters, they didn't grow up during a Reagan Presidency.) If we had a draft now, I think we would see a great number of kids refusing to serve, if it meant participating in the war in Iraq.

[jpgray]

19. By and large, yes (nt)

[qwertyMike]

23. There's be an epidemic of

ANAL CYSTS

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. If the 60's is any example,

no they won't go marching off to war easily.

[TreasonousBastard]

25. Aside from 1863...

and the New York draft riots, we have always gone all too willingly to war. Even during the 60's and all the broughaha, almost all the drafted kids went in. And, there were a lot of volunteers.

For some curious reason, nations throughout history have never had much trouble raising armies. Paying for them was a problem at times, but never raising the manpower.

Perhaps things have changed a bit, but probably only because we're more spoiled and don't want to put the time in, not because we're more enlightened.

Interesting questions might be raised if, in these enlightened times, women are still exempt from the draft.

[Dems Will Win]

26. The take on the Millennials is completely backwards, you should read the

book "Generations" which predicted the Millennials would be the most activist generation in 80 years. The Millennials were in the streets first at the Battle of Seattle in '99, then anywhere the WTO met and then in the anti-Iraq War movement.

I guess you forgot about that.

The book Generations furthermore predicted that years before they grew up. The book says generations go back and forth between nihilism and activism in America every 20 years in cycles of 4. The Millennials, said the book are here to establish the new progressive MIllennium, they are the modern parallel to the generation of Washington and Jefferson--real activist leader who succeed in a complete transformation of society.

Since the book successfully predicted this and you obviously forgot all the recent street demonstrations, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the book is right and you got it backwards!