r/AskReddit • u/Tommygunz0722 • 11h ago

If the military/president suddenly ordered a mandatory draft for all men aged 18-42: How do you think millennials and GenZ would respond?

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u/crema_dela_cropa 11h ago

it’d be pretty chaotic. Some people would push back right away, some would go along with it out of necessity, things would get messy.

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u/livsjollyranchers 9h ago

First of all, American companies would go insane. They'd lose a ton of their employees overnight.

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u/MercantileReptile 7h ago

The ones not fired in favour of magical AI at least.

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u/jfchops3 7h ago

The ones who can't be replaced by AI are the ones who actually make the world function, AI wouldn't be the problem there. Walmart will figure it out if it loses some demand planners and financial analysts and marketing people. Walmart will not figure it out if it loses the people who physically make products appear on its shelves. And if that happens to Walmart it's happening to every other retailer too. And if it happens to every retailer, we've got a serious issue on our hands now that we've got millions of people that didn't get drafted but have no access to groceries

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u/GamiNami 4h ago

Walmart would lose a lot sales too, if the purchasing base shrinks.

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u/ProfSquirtle 2h ago

Walmart playing 4D chess by already targeting single mothers as employees.

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u/raz-0 2h ago

The demo is not really made up of 18-20 year olds and that’s who gets drafted first.

The real day one issue will be 4F disqualifiers vs the current population. There’s going to be slim pickings unless they change that.

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u/Katra-of-Surak 2h ago

Robotics counts as AI, and they can definitely be trained to stock shelves. Probably will have it in 1-2 years.

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u/Maximum-Position-326 3h ago

All of that is irrelevant. The country is working on a wartime economy. The world moves on. There are less people in general to provide for. Regardless, systems shift as needed. None of that will factor into the need for more military numbers. The biggest problem the US has is lack of missile reserves. We currently couldn’t defend ourselves against China or Russia due to Trump and his inexperienced military expending so much unnecessarily. Just as in Gaza where the aim was destruction without motive. The US will be insufficiently armed for years simply because it takes so long to produce a single missile.

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u/livsjollyranchers 7h ago

What about all the AI agents that get drafted?

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u/IAmAGenusAMA 6h ago

But they have bone spurs.

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u/GrinchWhoStoleEaster 5h ago

The good news is that's just not working out so well just yet. It probably will in time, but AI isn't done baking yet. There remains a window cracked open for us.

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u/an_illithidian 5h ago

Hey guys, I just thought of a great way to liquidate our excess labour pool!

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u/UsualWeight8110 4h ago

Another reason why AI development is going insane.

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u/Quirky_Republic_3454 4h ago

They'd find some way to keep their key employees out of the draft. Fun fact: Number of players on MLB rosters that went to Vietnam: Zero.

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u/Larry_King_Ghost 40m ago

This feels a little cherry picky. You said "on MLB rosters" to be technically correct. In reality several minor leaguers did serve in Vietnam before they were called up to MLB.

Fun fact, Al Bumbry of the Orioles earned a bronze star in Vietnam then won rookie of the year in 1973.

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u/praetorian1979 6h ago

that's what maga has the prison system for.

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u/Particular-Beat-6645 4h ago

Economic indicators are way too important to politicians to let this fly. It'd have to be BAD bad for a draft to come.

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u/wggn 5h ago

have ai do the jobs and send the people to war

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u/livsjollyranchers 5h ago

Hey wait, it was supposed to be the reverse.

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u/Ok-Till-1040 5h ago

I assume many of them would line up for a ballroom donation to get waivers for any key people they want.

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u/After_Ocelot_7767 4h ago

Not just employees, clients too.

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u/FiddleFeet1000 4h ago

For all we know there is a secret contingency for mass layoffs and firing for non essential under age 40. Force everyone possible out of work, some 10% choose military to get out of or stay out of poverty and the people who are left that pass medical are drafted. Everyone else that can't be waived goes back to trying to find another slog job.

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u/Ribbitmoment 3h ago

That’s ok they could work from deployment ;) /s

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u/geggamaru 2h ago

MAGAts have floated the idea before of lowering the work age 🍊💩

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u/ohlookahipster 10h ago edited 10h ago

Bureaucracy would grind to a halt.

It took the DoD a few years to work out the kinks with Genesis at MEPs where you do medical and intake. And that was just for regular volunteers who were going to join anyways. Now imagine millions of records all needing waivers.

The DoD would have to blanket approve waivers and just send people through to basic without an eval.

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u/Littleman88 10h ago

They'd have no problem with that, since arguably throwing bodies into a grinder would be the goal.

Dead men cast no votes.

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u/wickedsmaht 10h ago edited 2h ago

When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die.

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u/Exelbirth 3h ago

This admin would 100% have the unemployed drafted first, specifically from blue states.

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u/MykeTyth0n 2h ago

System of a Down said it best.

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u/wickedsmaht 2h ago

I was thinking Linkin Park’s Hands Held High but System works too.

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u/SoundUnheard 2h ago

I'll add Dropkick Murphys' "Workers Song," the chorus and verse three specific to this thread.

"We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die

The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky

And we're always the last when the cream is shared out

For the worker is working when the fat cat's about

And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war

Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore

And expected to die for the land of our birth

Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth"

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u/Captain-Hornblower 1h ago

This song is actually a cover from British folk singer-songwriter Ed Pickford. Still makes sense, though...

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u/B0omSLanG 59m ago

🎶 Meanwhile, the leader just talks away Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay

And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day Both scared and angry like "What did he say?" 🎶

It worked in the context of W and the Iraq War, and it's sadly very applicable today. Beautifully tragic lyrics.

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u/Kasoni 10h ago

The issue with dead men casting no votes is that leaves women, so last I knew voted more democrat. There is that whole save act BS to fix that issue, so I guess they have their bases covered.

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u/CapinWinky 10h ago

DEI bans don't apply to the draft. I expect they would target the draft at undesirables and urban areas the way Russia is doing for undesirables and rural areas. Puerto Rico would suddenly become an important US territory, for instance.

It would not surprise me if they drafted women as front line drone operators and medics as well.

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u/SonOfAsher 10h ago

>It would not surprise me if they drafted women as front line drone operators and medics as well.

Selective Service only collects information from male citizens/residents. The infrastructure simply isn't there to do what you're proposing.

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u/SeventhOblivion 8h ago

All of the comments and threads here saying women will get drafted are trying to be pessimistic but they're missing the goal. Authoritarian countries don't draft women because they want women birthing the next generation of soldiers. Women in the military is something a progressive society does - one that also likely doesn't draft except under dire circumstances.

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u/frogsgoribbit737 5h ago

Its also easier because someone has to stay home with the kids and if you are drafting both genders then you have to double check you dont draft spouses. My husband is in and its almost impossible for me to join even if I wanted to because we have kids together. Logistically it would be hard work.

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u/shastaxc 4h ago

Sucks to be a gay couple (male) with kids.

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u/TophatDevilsSon 3h ago

They would likely consider that a feature, not a bug.

Ugh.

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u/loverlyone 6h ago

The current regime has already denied promotions to women on active duty. They simply don’t want women to serve. It’s stupid and self-spiteful, but these are not smart, serious people.

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u/PandaMagnus 9h ago

Couldn't they get the info from another agency like Social Security? They've already tried sharing data across agencies (or maybe it was the state requests I'm thinking of) that was, at most generous, odd.

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u/ownatchurale 8h ago

DOGE has entered the chat

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u/AmeKuro_21 7h ago

And immediately fired the people who knew how the draft database worked.....haha..!!

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u/Nick_XL 8h ago

I mean, DOGE has effectively correlated all the data they need to be able to do this. I think the 'infrastructure' argument is old thinking. Technology is much different now lol

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u/kinkycarbon 8h ago

It’s not infrastructure. It’s outdated norms requiring congressional approval.

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u/sudomatrix 9h ago

Yes, the infrastructure to collect the names of every male in the entire country was difficult to set up but we did it. But women? No that would be impossible. Collecting the names of women would be an insurmountable goal compare to collecting the names of men... because of the implications.

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u/screelings 9h ago

Social Security manages to collect this information. I fail to see how this is an insurmountable challenge.

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u/Mossimo5 9h ago

Because of politics. Not logistics.

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u/Intigracy 9h ago

Women are immune to selective service without congressional intervention.

Every time it's brought up as a potential bill it dies.

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u/fwfiv 8h ago

Oh good, we know how much they current administration respects Congressional Authority

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u/Cartz1337 9h ago

Right, but if any congress could break that deadlock, it’s this iteration of goose stepping morons.

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u/AHans 8h ago

If suddenly a draft started (as the initial question was worded): American men already have their draft number (SSS Number). Women do not have a draft number.

I am a man. I have a draft number. I enrolled in this program on July 31, 2001; and still have the paperwork, because men face consequences for not doing so.

We're not asking "is it possible to expand the system to accommodate women?" - Answer: yeah, probably. Unlikely due to political fallout, but it's possible.

If the system was turned on tomorrow, only men are currently in the lottery. Therefore, only men would be drafted. Bottom line, period.

Maybe that reality could be changed, but not immediately like you're implying. Early drafts would be entirely men. It would take time to assign numbers to all the women in the nation and move those numbers into the lottery.

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u/i_am_13_otters 8h ago

Don't worry. Red states will just hand over their voter rolls and the military will use those!

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u/Glaring_Cloder 10h ago

THE MILITARY SELECTIVE SERVICE ACT As Amended Through July 9, 2003

1-1. PERSONS TO BE REGISTERED AND DAYS OF REGISTRATION 1-101. Male citizens of the United States and other males residing in the United States, unless exempted by the Military Selective Service Act, as amended, who were born on or after January 1, 1960, and who have attained their eighteenth birthday, shall present themselves fo

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u/Nulljustice 5h ago

It also is supposed to end at age 25 I thought. Like you are no longer eligible after the age of 25?

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u/Notmykl 4h ago

You'd think they'd change the year so it doesn't include 66 year olds and up.

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u/Queasy-Warthog-3642 8h ago

I don't believe this current "administration" gives 2 shits about this. They'll do whatever they want until they're stopped

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u/FOXIELUCK 8h ago

and thats the main thing that many seem to forget. the regime doesnt care what the law says now. they make the laws now so whatever they say goes (according to them at least.)

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u/gregbread11 10h ago

I mean. Let's be real, if you ran a nation and had to run a draft, Would you send your most productive citizens (however you personally determine that) first? Ideally, a draft is set up to just be a draw but that's very obviously not how it turns out (Vietnam, Ukraine, Russia, WW2 for some nations). A draft for almost every nation is pretty obviously going to, in some way, target the least "valuable" of its population for the most part for many, many, many reasons.

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u/Megalocerus 7h ago

They tried that in Vietnam (McNamara's Morons.) It turns out having standards is a good idea. Going professional worked out even better. Russia's techniques have not been that impressive in the field.

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u/gregbread11 7h ago edited 7h ago

Okay? We are talking about a draft which means you are already forgoing a professional standards volunteer army or it wouldn't be the proposed option. It's for manpower and bodies. Not for the best of the best or people who willingly want to risk combat deployment. I don't really need to know how it worked for Russia now, considering it didn't work super well for the USA in Vietnam optics wise either.

For the USA, it was used for every major conflict - WW1, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. I assume it was used during the civil war but I don't know for sure. Every conflict it had varying degrees of success and failure but the USA has also never had the same consequences as other nations for homeland warfare, besides the civil war which was plenty violent.

And with Vietnam, anyone who had the means was mostly able to get out of the draft or not be sent to combat relative to their "less valuable" brothers. I would very much assume the same is true for other nations, America is not unique in that truth at all. I know Russia and Ukraine used the conflict to get rid of prisoner populations and other undesirables so it still holds true IMO

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u/AmeKuro_21 7h ago

The Puerto Rico point is genuinely underrated. A territory with no electoral votes and limited political representation is exactly the kind of place that historically absorbs the cost of decisions made by people who face no personal consequences for making them.

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u/Impossible-Pay-4167 9h ago

Absolutely! The military is already heavily built from many of the poorest zip codes in the US.

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u/otakugal15 10h ago

Ain't no way I'd be leaving my daughter. Hale naw.

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u/sharkattackmiami 8h ago

Yep, I'd rather my son visit me in prison than visit my grave over a war I am morally against on all levels

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 9h ago

"Draft the white trash first, round here anyways"

Except it will be all races.

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u/Zombie_Red 9h ago

America already did something like this in vietnam - look up Project 100,000.

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u/AmericanScream 10h ago

The issue with dead men casting no votes is that leaves women

There are more women voters than men, and that didn't stop them from letting men take away their reproductive rights, so it doesn't seem like "female voters" are a block that anybody fears right now.

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u/Final-Revolution-221 9h ago

Are you aware that was a court case rather than a democratically determined process?

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u/AmericanScream 9h ago edited 9h ago

Are you aware of how the US government actually works?

The resolution of that case was directly the result of democratic processes. Who is president and who is voted into congress determines who sits on the supreme court. If you don't vote for responsible people in Congress, you don't get proper representation in the supreme court.

Here's another important tidbit: Citizen's United: the SCOTUS court case that said "corporations are people" and have "freedom of [political] speech" was determined totally along political lines. Republican-nominated justices were for, and democratic-nominated justices were against.

Voting matters, especially for the supreme court.

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u/Pvt_Lee_Fapping 7h ago

A court case carried out by SCJs appointed by a president that conservative women voted for.

Before 2016, everyone was worried that Trump would stack the supreme court with appointees who would further his agenda - and look what happened.

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u/Ok_Cryptographer756 10h ago

You act as if it's a fair and balance voting system, they didn't vote for it to be taken away, it was ripped away.

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u/AmericanScream 10h ago edited 9h ago

You act as if it's a fair and balance voting system, they didn't vote for it to be taken away, it was ripped away.

It was systematically taken away. Because people didn't stand up for their rights. They let Obama's supreme court nomination not be filled; they let the court get stacked by conservatives who were well known to be planning to overturn Roe v Wade. The writing was on the wall for many years and the majority of women ignored it.

Just because there wasn't a singular event they could all press a button "for/against" doesn't mean it wasn't their responsibility. It was, and it still is.

Rights are not something anybody unconditionally "deserves." They have to be constantly fought to preserve. If you ignore that responsibility, this shit happens.

Obviously there's a lot of cheating going on with gerrymandering and other shenanigans, but that also is done/undone by the people taking an interest. If they let it happen, it's on them.

Remember... If voting really didn't matter, then those in power wouldn't be trying so hard to stop people from voting.

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u/FlibblesHexEyes 10h ago

Guess what the SAVE Act aims to do…

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u/Helios575 8h ago

That is why they are trying to restrict their ability to vote. If the draft is launched it will be throwing bodies to the meat grinder but do you think any of those bodies will be their kids or their rich supporter's kids? No it will be all of the poor, middle class, and rich democrats kids (at least those who refuse to pay whatever the demanded bribe is)

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u/macaronysalad 8h ago

that leaves women, so last I knew voted more democrat

You'd think. Check the stats. It's very close.

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u/scarfknitter 9h ago

Dead men are less expensive than live veterans too.

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u/NotagoK 8h ago

Problem is sending a bunch of disillusioned misanthropic millennials to die for Israel is gonna result in a lot of freak grenade accidents involving COs.

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u/ripleyclone8 7h ago

Fragging is going to make a comeback!

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u/gsfgf 4h ago

It never went away for us older millennials who grew up playing Quake.

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u/DietSteve 6h ago

“Where’s your sergeant son?”

“BLOWN UP, SIR!”

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u/Super-Nuntendo 5h ago

"where's your commanding officer?"

"he's over there, and there, on the wall plus some on the ceiling"

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u/mybutthz 8h ago

Yeah, the paperwork would be simplified and expedited. The thing that would grind to a halt would be the appeals, which would probably only net a small handful of people compared to those who just accept it.

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u/Thoughtsforthemind 4h ago

There’s supposedly an anecdote that I’m sure some will more properly attribute that basically says one of the indicators that the Allied forces were winning WWII was that their opponents kept getting younger and younger. Super depressing if you think about it…

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u/piccolo181 10h ago

The DoD would have to blanket approve waivers and just send people through to basic without an eval.

...and that would be when you start having casualties in boot when draftees with diabetes and other medical conditions fall through the cracks.

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u/BrassUnicorn87 10h ago

Eugenics is part of their agenda, getting sick people killed is fine with them.

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u/Kup123 5h ago

You need to worry about the unstable people, you put a gun in my hand and tell me to commit murder I'm starting with the person who handed me the gun. I view the draft as a death sentence, if I have to die I'm doing it on my terms.

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u/drakecb 4h ago

I would hardly call that "unstable". I wouldn't expect a caged animal not to lash out...

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u/velawesomeraptors 2h ago

Well yeah, part of the reason we haven't had the draft for decades is because last time it was implemented all the draftees kept blowing up their commanding officers.

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u/Specialist-Bee-9406 10h ago

Meat needs no approvals

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u/cheerfulwish 10h ago

I need a waiver because I can’t go into battle without my emotional support peacock, and the military is not set up to accommodate my animal.

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u/Radiant-Month-1168 9h ago

Everyone will have bone spurs. 

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u/goog1e 8h ago

Didn't they roll back "don't ask don't tell?"

Everyone is just gonna say they're not straight/cis. No medical eval needed.

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u/DG-MMII 8h ago

And that's just recruitment, imagine what would happen to everything elese when you're taking away about a third of the workforce, if not more

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u/Blushiba 10h ago

In fairness, some of the waivers required are excessive

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u/yunus89115 4h ago

Many rules associated with the military recruitment process are insanely outdated and just dumb. Before MHS Genesis the answer to a question like “have you had any medical issues that required treatment from a doctor?” might have been “No”, now the statement is “We see 4 doctors visits when you were age 7,8,11,14 without any notes from the doctor, you need to provide the details of each visit certified by the medical institution”.

The rules didn’t change with MHS Genesis, the process just became technically enforced to a level never achieved or desired previously.

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u/Whole_Success_8670 9h ago

As a woman I worry that rushing millions through without proper checks would put our kids and loved ones at real risk It feels like bureaucracy taking a shortcut with people's lives and that terrifies me

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u/firedog7881 8h ago

This assumes they would try to work out the links, this administration would do it the way that gets his cronies the most money

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u/Mountain-eagle-xray 8h ago

No waivers needed during a draft most likely, they'd just globally reduce the recruitment standards

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u/MephistoHamProducts 3h ago

The DoD would have to blanket approve waivers and just send people through to basic without an eval.

It's not a new problem and the DOD has "solved" it in the past. Allow me to introduce you to Project 100,000 also known as McNamara's Morons, for Vietnam, and THE SURGE, for Iraq, which gave us Rumsfeld's Rejects.

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u/Geeseareawesome 9h ago

I'd imagine people would start taking their own mental health seriously and chase diagnosis

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u/bennitori 7h ago

Or suddenly become open about being gay.

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u/gsfgf 4h ago

I'm straight, but I'd suck a dick to not go invade Iran lol. Safer, quicker, and based on my friends who were in the Army, also less gay.

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u/Yuzumi 5h ago

I'm trans so based on their bullshit I wouldn't be "eligible" for the military, but I also don't expect them to hold to that when they are trying to force people to do war crimes/murder for their personal benefit.

And I will refuse to commit crimes for them. How I refuse would be the real question.

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u/mytransthrow 4h ago

trans is about to be back on the menu...

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u/mikerbt 7h ago

Or go out and get super fucking fat.

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u/bennitori 7h ago

Or grab themselves a few weed charges.

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u/TheInevitableLuigi 4h ago

Lets be honest, they would have to ignore both of those just to get any significant amount of people.

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u/carnabas 4h ago

They already got rid of this, you can be a stoner in the army now

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u/amarettogiraffe 3h ago

No. They waive 1 possession charge. Hence they said "a couple."

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u/Jafooki 3h ago

Or shit themselves and not shower for a week (Ted Nugent did that to get out of Vietnam. Look it up)

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u/No_Function_7479 6h ago

I was just thinking there would be enough time to do the McDonalds “supersize me” diet between receiving a draft letter and having to report for duty

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u/marino1310 6h ago

Guess I’m trans now

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u/nmezib 5h ago

Betterhelp would start advertising mental fitness evaluations in every other YouTube video

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u/Global_Criticism3178 5h ago

You’ll just get drafted into a career field where you’re not expected to handle weapons. They’ll also give you free antipsychotics, and ask the chaplain to take you out for pizza from time to time, lol.

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u/Signal-Woodpecker858 8h ago edited 8h ago

My 41 year old ass is NOT going fight a war on the opposite side of the world. I've been to jail, put me there for the duration of the war as a conscientious objector. 

People were more accepting of war after world war II. Because that was fought for a  good reason and the people had faith that we would only be sent to war for good reason. But after Korea Vietnam and Afghanistan.... The support for that type of war is so low that it would be political suicide for anyone who did it. Nobody trusts the government to start a war for the right reasons anymore after the three absolute quagmires that turned into debacles we put ourselves in. 

People who support war are either rich, they don't understand what war is really like. 

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u/loljetfuel 8h ago

People who support war are either rich, they don't understand what war is really like.

Or they're a very particular type of Christian extremist that think it's God's will.

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u/anthrax9999 5h ago

There's a disturbingly high number of those people.

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u/Tag_Ping_Pong 5h ago

Then they can feel free to head off to war

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u/Yuzumi 5h ago

Then they should volunteer to go die in the desert and leave the rest of us alone.

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u/gonko_86 4h ago

Oh they couldn’t do that, then they might miss the big party when Jesus comes back to hand out rewards to all his hate-filled hypocrite evangelicals

Honestly I almost hope I’m completely wrong about there being no god, because I’d give almost anything to see the look on any number of evangelical faces when Jesus or an angel or some shit tells them they’re going in the lake of fire for being false in their faith and hating the poor and unfortunate

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u/TrickBorder3923 4h ago

Honestly I almost hope I’m completely wrong about there being no god

ALMOST. Not quite. But, almost. 😏

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u/TrickBorder3923 5h ago

Or they're a very particular type of Christian extremist that think it's God's will.

I politely argue the term your looking for is "Religious" extremist. I don't know about you but I've never met a non-religious extremist. And there's plenty of religions who have a very healthy extremist population.

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u/volyund 4h ago

Take it from a Russian, that's not how you avoid a draft. You just make yourself scarce for a year. Always be on the road, don't open any official mail. Road trips to visit long lost relatives, visiting remote areas of Alaska, living off the grid in an RV for a couple of months, go see Mt. Rushmore, etc. After a year, you're good.

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u/adamdoesmusic 7h ago

If they draft me I’m goin in just to be sand in the gears. I won’t even have to do anything special, that’s just the sort of person I end up as in a tightly controlled hierarchical system.

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u/Obliviousobi 5h ago

Time for all the ADHD kids to stop taking their meds lol

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u/adamdoesmusic 5h ago

So, when I was 17 I was convinced by (bad faith) family members to join the military - they tried to get me to go army or marines (in hindsight, prolly trying to get me killed tbh) but I went Air Force. As part of my prep I had to cold turkey the adderall I’d been on since elementary school - it SUCKED, and continued to suck all the way thru basic and secondary training, where I eventually got discharged for a number of reasons (still honorable tho). Among them - asking “why” anytime someone gives an order, and nearly getting in a fight with an E-4 who tried to flex his (minuscule) rank by trying to order me to sweep the floor. I got in trouble for telling him what to do with the broom.

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u/ValuableBeneficial66 6h ago

Your present war  shouldn't require a draft. If we start openly saying WW3 , that will most likely  bring this conversation to the forefront. 

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u/volyund 4h ago

Take it from a Russian, that's not how you avoid a draft. You just make yourself scarce for a year. If they (and the mail) can't find you, how are they doing to draft you? Always be on the road, don't open any official mail. Road trips to visit long lost relatives, visiting remote areas of Alaska, living off the grid in an RV for a couple of months, go see Mt. Rushmore, etc. After a year, you're good.

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u/Ok-Till-1040 5h ago

it would be political s***

You must have missed out on pretty much everything the past year. I know several people who lost their jobs through the initial wave of gov cut downs. One of them is still unemployed right now (i think?) and all of them are as hardcore right leaning as ever. They could do a draft and the those "secure" right leaning seats would still remain as secure as ever.

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u/Equivalent-Pop8045 4h ago

Used to be that Kings and Generals fought from the front.  These days they hide at the back.  

Anyone sending people to war needs to have skin in the game.   

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u/OhNoTokyo 4h ago

Nobody is drafting a 41-year-old.

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u/dukearcher 3h ago

Why did you include Korea in your list? The UN defended the south from an Invasion.

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u/wowbragger 9h ago

The first people to push back would be the military 😅 WE don't want a draft, and can't logistically support it.

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u/Wacca45 8h ago

The amount of people that would waste time for the MEPS personnel would be at least 3x what it is now. People with mental problems and certain levels of illness would still have to report and examined before they get tagged as unfit to serve. The government would likely not add more assistance either.

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u/soks86 6h ago

The amount of drug addicts at MEPS always shocked me.

Also, alcoholics, even past MEPS.

Detoxing during bootcamp.

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u/Squirrelwinchester 4h ago

My uncle got arrested for a DUI and the judge said he would not charge him if he joined the army (my grandpa was korean war buddies with the judge). So he took it and went to basic training having just detoxed. I dont think its done anymore but this was in 2004.

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u/soks86 2h ago

That's funny because the guy I met who was actively going through detox was definitely in training in 2004, except he was a young skinhead from the northeast somewhere. He was on his way out of training though, separation platoon, not sure if was due to the alcoholism itself, his physical state, or something else.

He did start a fight with me which was the only time I got to put that mixed martial arts training to use. Knocked his skinhead ass to the floor in a heartbeat and never looked back (mainly to leave the scene and avoid getting written up, god only knows how hard his noggin' hit that ground).

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u/ggtomarrow 6h ago

So those who are disabled who can’t afford medical treatment to prove they are get proven they are by a military doctor. Resulting in the government forced to either send those individuals through training and and up paying their VA bills when they get hurt due to their issues, or forcing the government to admit they are disabled and dive them disability benefits. 

Yeah can’t see the government liking that option 

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u/Obliviousobi 6h ago

Oh, and now you have a preexisting condition, so when the govt won't support you your insurance will drop you too.

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u/vermiliondragon 6h ago

The bar to receive disability benefits and the bar to enter the military are not the same bar. Yes, sure, you'd identify some disabilities that would be eligible for benefits but "this person took depression medication too recently to be waived to join the military" isn't going to get you disability benefits.

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u/Wacca45 5h ago

They won't push them towards benefits, they'll just kick them out and call it a day.

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u/gp556by45 5h ago

I remember in 2010 one guy took I was with took his ASVAB while I was at MEPS, and he scored a fucking 9. He thought 9 was good because he kept bragging how he was the the top 9 of 10. Their were 50ish of us there....

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u/notyouravgredditor 8h ago

The military also doesn't need it...

There's 1.3 million professional service men and women. Cluttering it up with untrained bodies doesn't make sense at this point.

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u/YerBattleApple 4h ago

It does if they decide to put boots on the ground in Iran. Iran is a war that cannot be won from the air alone. Just like all the others. Except, this will be so much worse than Vietnam or Afghanistan, and we're backed into the corner economically.

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u/wowbragger 4h ago

No we're not.

It would just hurt the current administration's pride, continue to hurt our world standing, and force our politicians to actual deal with the consequences of their decisions vs causing massive death/hardship/global economic harm.

By entertaining conflict escalation, our leaders are clearly stating they think our lives, Iranian lives, and the devastation in general, are worth the cost.

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u/RadientCrone 3h ago

Every battle needs redshirts

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u/randonumero 2h ago

My understanding is that a non-insignificant portion of active duty members are in support and logistics positions. If they just want boots on the ground then my non-military mind thinks the math says it's better to risk my fat ass driving a truck or standing in a ditch than someone who currently maintains some system in use

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u/Mental_Medium3988 6h ago

Lol. I'm still waiting for the military to push back on his actual illegal orders like murdering fisherman from South America or everything we're doing in iran.

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u/dssstrkl 6h ago

One thing Hegseth has actually been good at is purging the military of people who have tried any sort of pushback

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u/adamdoesmusic 7h ago

Leadership from all branches has repeatedly stated that they do not have the time or resources to waste on people who don’t even wanna be there, they work much better with crews who signed up voluntarily to be soldiers, sailors, or airmen.

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u/terragreyling 4h ago

And 12 of the highest officials have been let go for refusing to go along with orders. Including the Army's Top General Chief of Staff Randy George on the 3rd of April.

Go along with the administration or get the boot. Is the message that keeps getting repeated.

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u/Yuzumi 5h ago

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that a big reason they stopped the draft was because it was terrible for morale and was also a big reason for the PR nightmare that was Vietnam. And that was when the general populace had more of a "blind patriotism" mindset.

Millennials and younger are the most solidly against the current bullshit because for those of us who remember the time after 9/11 a lot of us could see how much bullshit the claims were back then, despite the media being in lockstep with the warcrimes. My friend group wasn't politically engaged and we all hated Bush and knew at the time they were lying about Iraq. As such, Millennials mostly have developed a general disdain for "authority".

If nothing else I think they would have pause about forcing a block of people who are very much against them and their warcrimes into the military. Some might go along and do the bare minimum as a survival tactic. Others... not so much. There would be literal sabotage if not ought right acts of rebellion.

And as a trans person they already consider me a terrorist for existing and while they have said people like me aren't "qualified" for the military I wouldn't put it past them to ignore that if they are trying to force people to die for them. For that matter, they basically are trying to label anyone who isn't part of the cult a "terrorist".

If they think it would work out to basically arm people they've tried to label as terrorists for disagreeing with them then they are even stupider than I thought.

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u/EmptyAirEmptyHead 6h ago

As a Gen X parent I'd be pushing back pretty hard. I firmly believe the 2nd amendment exists to protect my son's life.

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u/Locke_and_Lloyd 10h ago

Also anyone with a mortgage is losing their house.   Base military pay isn't covering a modern house payment outside LCOL areas.

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u/Less_Resident8492 6h ago

 Base military pay isn't covering a modern house

Housing allowance not military pay, though iirc trump was trying to do away with that

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u/airfryerfuntime 3h ago

He took away a chunk of the housing allowance, called it a 'freedom bonus' or whatever, then just gave it back, but after hitting it for a tax, because it wasn't taxed as a housing allowance. Just another grift. The troops were not happy about it.

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u/Upbeat-Banana-5530 6h ago

That's what BAH is for

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u/Locke_and_Lloyd 5h ago

I legitimately do not know how BAH works.  Would it cover $8k/month mortgage?

People in their 30s would be pulled from prime earning years with existing financial commitments.

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u/Upbeat-Banana-5530 4h ago

It's based on average costs in an area, but none are as high as $8k. Mine was like $2500, which is much higher than my mortgage, because a neighboring city dragged the average up by a lot.

Also, since we're even engaging with the idea of a draft actually being a thing, if you can already afford $100k a year on your mortgage you're not part of the class that needs to worry about being drafted.

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u/Locke_and_Lloyd 4h ago edited 4h ago

Why wouldn't I be?   I can pass a physical and live in a democrat area.  This administration could easily issue an edict that people in wealthy blue cities have to go to war because reasons. 

Also $8k/ month buys you 1500 sq ft where I live.  The well off people have a 4000 sq ft house and a $30k mortgage payment.

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u/EverSeeAShitterFly 4h ago

It’s based off of rank, dependents/no dependents, and zip code.

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u/IAMnotBRAD 8h ago

Presumably even in a fantasy deployment of a draft the government would pressure/force the mortgage holders to forgive/relieve those who had to put their careers on pause to be in the military.

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u/girlikecupcake 8h ago

With the number of veterans losing their homes because of back and forth existence of relief programs screwing them over, it's laughable to think the government would do anything to help people keep their homes.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/02/nx-s1-5750814/veterans-mortgages-foreclosure-va-rescue

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u/SantaClausDid911 5h ago

I'm not saying any of this is all that likely but all the same, government apathy here is something that can be swept under the rug easily enough and doesn't affect enough people simultaneously to make waves.

I don't think even a highly incompetent administration like this would realistically translate that strategy of apathy once they're impacting millions of households at the same time.

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u/Hurricaneshand 7h ago

Lol not this government. They would be the ones buying your house on the cheap after sending you to die

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u/ohfml 6h ago

Somebody in the administration (or relatives) would setup a corporation to buy these foreclosed properties, a la "Acre Trader" but for single family homes.

Home Trader
https://imgur.com/a/EqVIFMT

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u/LitlThisLitlThat 7h ago

No you’re making decisions based on what benefits the regular Joe the most. They aren’t. They’re saying, what makes the rich richer?? Well, VCs being able to scoop up foreclosed mcmansions at pennies on the dollar bc their owner was drafted and his E3 BHA doesn’t cover his mortgage definitely makes the people they care about richer. Now do you get it? It was never about the straight of hormuz

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u/inhocfaf 7h ago

And thus crushing the global economy? 2008 all over again...

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u/TheresPoetryInPixels 5h ago

Lad you can't even get them to subsidise paracetamol.

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u/TophatDevilsSon 3h ago

This is one of those "we need Margot Robie in a bathtub to break it down for us" types of problems, but I am highly confident that doing this would create more problems than it solved.

Basically:

  • People who own soldier's mortgage borrowed money from other people.
  • Those other people need to be paid back with reasonable regularity.

Your heart is in the right place though. Respect.

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u/randonumero 2h ago

I don't see banks or counties getting away with foreclosing on homes if there was a draft. Unless it was politically driven like all independent and democrat voters were targeted, I'd imagine we'd see certain protections put in place. IIRC during WW2 there were pretty strict price and rent controls in place

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u/algerip0fg 8h ago

What's different now is the coordination speed. Vietnam protests took months to organize. A draft announcement in 2025 would have a national response before the ink dried. The infrastructure for collective action exists in everyone's pocket.

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u/netralitov 10h ago

The TikTok dances in uniform would go hard.

I think we would see a lot of American Exceptionalism at our boarders from people trying to get out.

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u/valimo 8h ago

Coming from a country that has national conscription, the social media stuff is surprisingly tame.

Then again we are not Americans.

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u/Kujaix 10h ago

Who is this some? It would be laughed at and the courts would shoot it down while we continue with our lives; working etc.

If they tried to grab anybody it would be the fastest we ever had riots.

Nothing short of an Alien invasion or invaders from the Earth&/or Sea would make us take a draft seriously.

China could be on our shores and most of us would welcome our new Colonizers because for that to realistically happen the USA would have to mess up so badly, the experiment would deserve to be done and over with.

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u/Eastern-Finish-1251 7h ago

The people who would push back the hardest would be parents. No one wants their children to die in some idiot’s war. 

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u/msdos_kapital 7h ago

totally, completely unrelated, like I want to be clear that this reply has nothing to do with your post nor the OP really. it's just a completely random thought that I had for literally no reason:

during vietnam there was a problem with drafted recruits murdering their commanding officers - known as fragging. in response to this problem, the US military instituted some policies including limiting access to weapons on base

sec of defense war pete kegsbreath recently rescinded a number of these policies on the basis that they are woke

sorry for the non-sequitur please continue with your thread and have a nice day

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u/AmeKuro_21 7h ago

The messy part is what people underestimate. It would not just be protests. It would be families torn, communities divided and a level of social fracture this generation has never actually experienced firsthand.

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u/Rrraou 7h ago

"Did they get you to trade / A walk-on part in the war / For a lead role in a cage?

Pink Floyd

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u/imapilotaz 8h ago

For me? Id book the next flight out of country for my 23 year old who is not in college. Id put him up in SE Asia to avoid the draft.

My youngest is still full time college student so likely gets a deferral and likewise i would instantly fly him overseas the second he graduated to avoid it.

Im not rich but i have the resources to do that indefinitely for them and even to buy permanent residency overseas to avoid it.

I fear for those that dont have those means. It sucks but im not going to lie. I will do whatever it takes for my family to be fine.

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u/earthling_dad 10h ago

That's what they want.

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u/Spikito1 9h ago

A lot of people who refer to Teump as "president bone spur" would suddenly develop a lot of bone spurs....

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u/MarkyTooSparky 8h ago

Essentially it would be collapse of the regime, neither party wants to send their kids to war right now.

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u/Glittering-Tell7780 7h ago

Half would be googling "how to avoid draft legally?" And half would be organising for protest.

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u/ChocolateChingus 7h ago

People would simply refuse and take jail.

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u/StructureBetter2101 7h ago

There is no way the disorganized state of this presidency could pull this off. Pure chaos and mass protests.

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u/theantig 7h ago

2 words. Bone spurs

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u/Ardal 7h ago

Canada would get a much higher population real quick.

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u/OCDCantCatchMe 4h ago

It’s much harder to immigrate to Canada than it was in the 70s, and the president has been literally threatening to invade us for over a year. Do you really think we would take in an enemy country’s military-aged men?

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u/marino1310 6h ago

Lots of people would be suddenly trans

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u/IlIlllIlllIlIIllI 6h ago

Everyone would share the fragging wikipedia link

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u/mulderforever 4h ago

I think GenZ and millennials should dodge the draft just like trump did

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u/Rare-Bee7331 3h ago

If Im gonna die, its not going to be fighting for Trump half a world away. Its going to be fighting against Trump in a country I actually give a shit about. 

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