I have an 18yo son and I am ready to say FUCK IT! Bring on the draft!

[Sonicmedusa]

Of course he won’t go, (and I won’t allow it.) but if that is what it will take to get the young people away from their computers and video games and marching in the streets WITH their parents, to quote the asswipe, “BRING IT ON!”

But I want young women to be drafted , TOO. It is discrimination that young women do not have to register with Selective Service. Let the mothers and fathers in this country face losing their sons AND daughters to this bullshit war and maybe they will find a way to get their asses away from the Sopranos and put the fucking screws to their congressmen/women and senators.

Sorry for the rant, but I just don’t know what it is going to take to make this shit end.

[RedCappedBandit]

1. LOL

You wont allow your son to go, but you're willing to "bring it on" and risk the lives of everybody else's children (that would include me)?

:wtf:

[Ghost in the Machine]

6. You missed the point, I think..

From how I read it, the point is that the draft would make more people stand up against the war... imagine all the repuke chickenhawks being outraged that their kid could possibly be called up for service and face a very real chance of dying... that would get some action going in our favor to end the war..

[pnwmom]

25. No, it wouldn't. 50,000 troops died in Vietnam, WITH A DRAFT.

Beginning in the mid 60's, we had years of protests and tens of thousands of deaths before action was finally taken to end the war in 1973. Plenty of Republicans saw their sons go into that war, but the draft -- and the endless supply of cannon fodder -- only prolonged the war.

We're deluded if we think that is any kind of a solution.

[Ghost in the Machine]

30. I didnt say I agreed with the point, I was just pointing out what I thought

the OP's point was..

[tblue37]

42. And the wealthy and connected, like GWB, were tucked away safely

in champagne units like TANG.

[RedCappedBandit]

33. I got the point, and I don't like it.

The point is to play politics with the lives of my generation. To that I say: FUCK NO. No offense intended to you, but I DID get the point.

[Ghost in the Machine]

34. No offense taken. I didn't say I agreed with the point, just that I understood it..

I don't want ANYONE to die for this chickenhawk warmonger in the White House.

[Maddy McCall]

2. I have a 13 year old son, and I say "Fuck the draft."

If the draft comes, you won't be able to stop him from being drafted, unless you have some elaborate plans to leave the US. Or unless you're one of the wealthy elite who can have your son declared medically unable to go into combat.

[cynatnite]

3. I've got a 17 year old daughter and I say Hell No!

No way will I allow my kid to become a victim of bush's war and I will not support a draft. I'll send her to Canada or wherever in order to keep her out of it.

Knowing how much she's like me, she'll do what one of her uncles did. March to DC and burn her draft card. :)

[Breeze54]

10. You know your daughter wouldn't be caught dead in ANY protest march

or you either.

Just Give Up. Stop resisting. Accept! OBEY!!!! Don't Question Authority!

:P

[cynatnite]

14. ...

:smoke:

[rockymountaindem]

4. Uh huh... risk everybody else's kid but yours

At least other people here who support conscription have the honesty to admit that their kids will have to serve too.

[ikojo]

29. I have two nephews and a niece in the

military..would they be there if they were from wealthier families....I seriously doubt it.

[NNN0LHI]

41. I know a lot of disadvantaged kids who aren't willing to kill Iraqis to get ahead

There are better ways to make a buck.

Don

[Double T]

5. No sons or daughters or men or women should be fighting bushco's..........

fraudulent 'war(s)'. This shit will end when bushco is removed from office.

[Sonicmedusa]

7. Don't shoot me, this really IS just a rant

But really, WTF is going to get this country mobilized?

I really, really , REALLY don't want the draft. Seriously.

[il_lilac]

13. As the mom of a 17 year old son I heard you

loud and clear.

[Truthiness Inspector]

18. If you don't want a draft, why are saying you do?

Charlie Rangel, is that you?

[Warpy]

8. Hey, buster, you can draft women when boys have babies.

Risking our lives in childbirth is enough risk for us, thank you very much, and more women have died throughout history in childbirth than men have been slaughtered in wars.

In any case, the draft is NOT a good idea, especially now when we have a near dictatorial madman who wants to set the whole world ablaze just so he can see how big a firecracker a thermonuclear bomb really is.

No thanks, not now, not ever.

[tularetom]

9. You should think about using this

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

You may think it's obvious but not everyone does.

[earthlover]

11. How about, instead of a draft, require the commander in chief to.....

...lead the troops into battle! As in....commander.

No exemptions, just in case George has any more ideas about shirking war duty.

Some correlaries: require all the sons and daughters of Congressfolk to serve in the front lines. OK, that is a draft, but not as big as the entire nation. No exemptions here either.

I think enacting and enforcing this requirement would increase congressional debate about wars and make our leaders much less likely to lie our way into a war.

And, besides, it would be real sexy seeing the Bush twins in combat fatigues.

[Screwfly]

12. Are you for really?

[ContraBass Black]

15. When I was 18, I was speaking out against this war to anyone I could reach.

As were many of my schoolmates.Would you have had us fight and die in it instead?

Young people are against it and have been from before the beginning. Throw your own body into the machinery to jam the cogs, not ours.

[pnwmom]

17. My sons were out with me waving signs well before the war started.

Anyone who knows history knows that we ENDED the draft after the Vietnam war in order to deny the war machine easy access to cannon fodder. People who advocate for a draft on the grounds that it will bring an end to this war are incredibly naive.

[Oilwellian]

20. Well said ContraBass

I have two sons, my husband has two sons and a daughter...all five prime age for a draft. They have all been against this war and are definitely against any draft. I worry myself sick for their future, and hope we survive the next two years knowing the possibility of Bush putting us in an even more precarious position. I cannot tell you the rage we ALL feel for what has happened to our country in the past 6 years. We certainly aren't willing to sacrifice our lives for the power hungry war profiteers.

I see you're a recent grad of VT. Congrats from a nearby neighbor outside of Roanoke. :hi:

[ContraBass Black]

21. That should say "Class of 2007*" or "Class of 2007b"

I'll be around until December.

[pnwmom]

16. Reality check: 50,000+ died in Vietnam, WITH A DRAFT.

It took that many deaths, and years of protests, before the war finally ended. Is that what you're proposing?

A draft would just allow their megalomaniacal plans to grow even more.

[XOKCowboy]

19. Hey I agree with you to a point...

Luckily Little Britches will only be in office another 16 months so it's probably a moot point but you are right that only until EVERYONE has to suffer fighting this war will the rest of America call for it's end.

When the College Repugs and all of the congresspersons sons and daughters are being called upon to fight their war, then we'll see how much they really support a war for oil.

Gawd I hope it never comes to that. I remember what it was like going through high school wondering if my future was a rice paddy in Vietnam. It made me political.

[welshTerrier2]

22. the draft? oh no no no no no ...

the following is excerpted from my DU journal:

source: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/welshTerrier2/87

what's the rationale for a draft we hear from progressives? they say it would energize the movement ... soccer moms wearing headbands and a-carryin' signs ... we'd have protest music ... freakin Joan Baez would come ...

there would be speakers ... tons of left wing speakers ... our voices would be heard ... we'd get "our" people on the news ...

and most importantly, of course, we'd put an end to their wars and their madness ... America would not "put up" if their precious children were on the line ... instead, the hawks, especially the chickenhawks, would be driven from the halls of power ...

the argument reasons that when all Americans have a deep personal investment, they will say no to war ...

THE DRAFT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA !!!

the government has enough power over our lives ... if we hand them even more power, they will use it ... the draft is a death sentence that must be resisted ... yes, without question, a draft would energize and mobilize a very real resistance ... it mobilized and energized a very real resistance against Vietnam ... and as my birthdate was tossed in a hat with all the others against a backdrop of a massive mobilization against the war, Americans went to the polls and re-elected Richard Millhouse Nixon ... and Tricky Dick had the power to rip America's darlings away from mommy and daddy and ship them off to Vietnam ... be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box ...

we must never empower the state to conscript people unwilling to give their lives for the corrupt tyranny that is sold as the national interest ... we must not empower these corporate militarists with the right to demand allegiance to their immorality ...

i understand the desire to energize a movement ... it's critically important that we do it ... but the draft is the wrong vehicle ... and consider this ... i'm afraid to say that most who were the wacky left wing politicos of the '60s were only as committed as their risk of being drafted ... where did they disappear to when the war ended or the risk of being drafted finally evaporated? that's a fire built on only a single log ... yes, the movement sought to broaden itself and it did spin off other interest groups ... but in the end, the red hot street demonstrations and the passion soon fizzled out ...

to build a real movement requires a much broader agenda ... it requires sustained commitment to educating people, especially young people ... education should be job one for our party; it isn't even close right now ... the draft may be tempting because it is so dramatic and so personal ... and it would achieve some positive things ... but in the end, if we succeeded in blocking the next war or even the one after that, our resistance would soon scatter and the energy would be quickly lost ... the draft, in the end, would be building our fire using only kindling ... at first, the immediate flames would be spectacular; in the end, it would not sustain us and the price paid would far outweigh the returns ...

[pnwmom]

26. Great post, Welshterrior2. Thank you. n/t

[northernsoul]

36. spot on!

I think some people want to the draft out of sheer nostalgia for the 60's.

[roamer65]

23. I am absolutely against it now.

I used to think like you, but a draft absolutely will not be run fairly. If we start drafting, Cheney will definitely start a war with Iran.

[Hamlette]

24. you know that the highest percentage approval for vietnam was draft age kids

same as today

I don't think protests will help. the protests were raging in 67...68...69 but the war didn't end until 73. Five flipping years AFTER over half of Americans were against Vietnam.

We need to elect a president who doesn't promise a secret plan to end the war but one who will get us out immediately.

[northernsoul]

37. sources?

I don't necessarily think that you're wrong, but I'd be interested in seeing how the numbers break down.

[Hamlette]

38. I googled it re: a discussion here a couple of weeks ago

you might find it faster searching here.

[JVS]

27. No

[ikojo]

28. What it will take is the same thing it took in the

1960s...the threat of middle and upper middle class college kids being asked to sacrifice.

[Zywiec]

31. They're not bringing back the draft n/t

[PVnRT]

32. Ah, yes, another "young people are lazy" thread

On behalf of my generation, please go fuck yourself. We do plenty.

[northernsoul]

35. how is it that you "won't allow it"

I was unaware that there is a "my mommy won't let me" exemption to military conscription. Maybe that's what Cheney used for one of his five deferments.

[LSK]

39. Charlie Rangel, is that you?

[mdmc]

40. rant on my friend

:kick:

[Puregonzo1188]

43. Before the Iraq War even started you had 15 Million people protesting it

There have been plenty of large protests against. The idea that haven't been is a myth. Even if there weren't listen to what you're advocating. You want a draft which will get people killed in order to get people to agree with you. You don't see anything wrong with that?