What if the draft were reenacted tomorrow?

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in ROTC class back in HS, and the Commander reminded all the guys in the class that we had to register with the Selective Service on or before our eighteenth birthdays. Looking back on the situation, the only thing that registered with me was the fact that if we did not register with the Selective Service, we would not be able to take out loans for college. I believe I registered a few weeks after my seventeenth birthday mainly to get it out of the way so that I could concentrate on more pressing matters such as lunch period and going home after school to take my midday nap. Yup, the joys of high school…

I’m sitting here in the office at work, thinking about current events and something just popped into my head. What if the Draft was reenacted? With this war starting to seem as if it will NEVER end, what if something major were to pop off to the point where congress had no choice but to reenact the draft? Would it be too late to complain/boycott/demonstrate then? Reading articles about the Draft and the Selective Service Act, I was shocked to see that some of the ways my male teachers avoided the draft were amended if not down right abolished as excuses to avoid going to war.

Last child to carry the family name = Your ass is going to war.

You’re a college student = If you’re a senior, then you can graduate before going off to war. Other than that, your ass is going to war at the end of the semester.

Only male in your immediate family = Your ass is going to war.

Someone in your family is a high ranking politician and/or extremely wealthy = Your family is shipping you off to the south of France until the conflict is over. You can use your family name to get placed into a branch of the Armed Forces that rarely sends their troops to war.

There’s even a new half ass draft for health care workers which is entitled the Health Care Personnel Delivery System. This form of the draft includes those people (men AND WOMEN) ages 20-54 that happen to be health care workers. The DoD (Dept. of Defense) said this would be the most likely form of a draft if one were to occur. Makes you think twice about jumping into this profession in our lagging economy huh?

As we all know, some people take the pro-Draft stance. I personally hover somewhere between indifference and straight out opposition. I am opposed to the draft especially when the situation could have been avoided by the U.S. from jump. It’s kinda sorta like the government digging us into a hole, and then when they find that they’ve dug too deep, they make more people dig deeper (if that makes any sense).

I personally don’t think that much will happen between now and the time I turn 26, but then again you never know. I have an 11 year old nephew and little cousins that are just starting to enter their teen years, and I can honestly say that I am partially not looking forward to their eighteenth birthdays.

How do you feel about conscription?

Random Thought of the Moment: “I fly like paper, get high like planes/If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name…”

The Song of the Moment: “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.

Your response: