[neo_hermes]

umm....what the hell is the gov't up, too. i'm starting to think Bush/ some fat cat is trying to kick me in the nuts...

What the *****

Plz don't flame me...i don't deserve it...

[Fineus]

...Explain?

[karajorma]

Basically some senator who is now too old to serve wants to bring back national service.

[Peter]

As this was January last year, why is this being posted now? Is there some sudden leap foward to implementation or something?

[Fineus]

Oh, my bad - didn't notice the link in neo_hermes first post.

[kasperl]

It''s not like the draft hasn't been discussed before....

And really, it would change how people feel about going to war.
I am against the draft, against the war, and pretty much against Bush as well.

[karajorma]

This isn't the draft though. It's the draft by proxy.

[kasperl]

Originally posted by karajorma
This isn't the draft though. It's the draft by proxy.

Eh?

[Whitelight]

I had to go to the post office and signup for the draft when I turned 18, the funny part is, they did away with it 2 weeks later..

If they had not ended the draft I would have had to serve in nam..

I know of 4 of my friends who went to nam, 3 of them are not the same as before they left, messed there heads up.

And as for the forth friend, he was happy that he could kill people and get away with it, he was messed up  long before he went in the armed services..

Guess what the fourth friend is doing now, give up..

He drives bus for Northwestern High School

[Rictor]

it'll never happen. If the people have their air-conditioned SUVs and their quarter-pounder hamburgers taken away for so much as a second, they'll riot it the streets. to expect them to pick up a gun and go die in a desert halfway around the world....I just don't see it happening.

Whitelight: i thought the obvious answer to that last question would be that he's serving in Iraq.

[Whitelight]

Yeah that would be a good guess, but this took place over 26 years ago, funny how people can change as they get older

(edit) I noticed that we don`t keep in contact as much as we used to, must be due to R/L

[Flipside]

You either embrace the combat or completely reject it, but it will always change you. And those that can do neither simply lose their minds. That's why governments like sending other people to do their fighting for them

[Whitelight]

Most of them thought of only surviving and getting out alive, they all had different ways to cope with it...

And yes they all turned to drugs as a relief to the hell that exsisted around them.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by kasperl


Eh?

What I mean is that they won't say this is about getting everyone to pick up a gun and fight for their country in Iraq as that would be too obvious.

What they'll do is point at gangs and crime and say it's cause children lack discipline. They'll say that being in the army is character building and therefore if everyone did it we'd have less crime and that sort of thing.

Of course once they get it through they'd be quite happy to send the kids to do their character building while getting shot at.

[Whitelight]

They will definetly come out changed, if they survive, but will the change be in there favor... I think not..

Waking up at night in a cold sweet, having nightmares and back flashes from combat, just to point out a few.. One of my friends had a backflash while driving his car, if that wasen`t scary enough, there is more..

(edit) They tell me i`m the lucky one because I didn`t have to go..

[karajorma]

I don't doubt you're right there Whitelight. I certainly wouldn't want any kids of mine to go through that sort of character building.

[Whitelight]

Both my son and daughter wanted to go, my son (kenny) had a health problem and couldn`t go and as for my daughter Sarah, we (meaning me and the wife) talked her out of it.

[Black Wolf]

I can't imagine the chaos if they tried to (re?)introduce the draft here. I'd expect they'd get a lot of "Go **** Yourself" Letters at the very least...

[Flipside]

It simply wouldn't work here, especially after Iraq. London is so multi-cultural now that re-introducing the draft would only cause complete chaos.

Oh yes, and what BW said

[Flaser]

I guess it's a terrible experience, but it's also a power full wake up call: you just have to realise that you're alive.

Even scared these people are more avare of what beimg alive is than us. The more shaking experience for them could be or own ignorance and the sheer stupidity of our way of life.

Who cares about burgers and stupid rows with neighbour - when people die somewhere else and you've been through it?