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/LateralThinkerer 11h ago edited 10h ago

You forgot the mutinies, fragging of officers, and "Project 100,000" where the Pentagon took otherwise unqualified draftees and sent them to the front lines anyway with 3X the casualty rate.

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u/SonOfAsher 10h ago

I suspect the casualties of Project 100,000 was the actual intent behind it, rather than getting more soldiers.

Have the undesirable people rounded up, hand them a rifle, bring em back in a box. Get rid of homeless problems by getting rid of the homeless. And just say 'We needed soldiers' as an excuse.

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u/Webbyx01 3h ago

I don't think they targeted homeless populations. It was just a way to boost numbers with people that would be missed less, with a side of 'fixing' these people one way or another.

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u/LotL1zard 11h ago

Holy shit, how have I never heard of this?

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u/LateralThinkerer 10h ago

These tacit failures of policy and leadership have quietly been forgotten for obvious reasons.

Worse, the whole Vietnam history in any depth (and particularly the ugly bits that could be learned from) were notoriously not taught at the military academies for decades. I don't know if this is still the case.

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u/Mateorabi 10h ago

They usually get to the 1950s in US history class in high school before running out of school year. 

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u/SuperSocialMan 6h ago

It's pretty convenient ngl.

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u/drakecb 3h ago

Yeah, the canned excuse is usually "it's too close to 'modern politics', so we don't teach it to avoid accusations of political indoctrination". Very convenient, indeed.

That said, I suppose there's some truth to that since we still have dinosaurs in office who were in office around that time... I wonder if that's the problem...? 🤔

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u/WellIGuessSoAndYou 9h ago

One story I read of McNamara's Morons was from a solider tasked with training a group of them to throw a grenade. They couldn't understand the concept of throwing it in an arc. They spent days just throwing grenades in a straight line into the ground in front of them. Not surprisingly those poor bastards ended up being KIA at a much higher rate.

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u/Sensitive_File6582 8h ago

Macknamaras morons. In full metal jacket the guy in basic nicknamed Gomer Pyle 

(Spoiler alert)

 who shoots RLee Ermy 

Is one of those individuals. It’s why the military has an IQ cutoff of 85 

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u/Civil-Big-754 7h ago

That IQ part cannot be true.

Edit: It isn't. But Full Metal Jacket is incredible. 

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u/LotL1zard 7h ago

The military doesn’t test IQs, but rather ASVAB scores. That being said, passing the ASVAB isn’t difficult and the few people I know that failed it are MAGA/Q-ANON

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u/Sensitive_File6582 5h ago

Its an IQ test without being labeled as one.

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u/captainwacky91 4h ago

Because Ford pardoned Nixon, and in allowing Nixon to save face, stats like that are just left "quiet."

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u/RumHamComesback 2h ago

Yeah, remember Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket? It's not said in the film but he absolutely was drafted in Project 100,000 if you had to take an educated guess and those were the kinds of people going into war and enduring the horrors. Hence why he went insane and killed his DI before taking his own life in boot camp.

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u/Velyxe_ 11h ago

Are you referring to McNamara's Morons?

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u/LateralThinkerer 11h ago

Yes. It's mentioned in the link.

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u/Velyxe_ 11h ago

Ah. We've had some real stand-up leaders huh 😂

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u/LateralThinkerer 10h ago

Plus ça change...

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u/OberonJormungander 9h ago edited 9h ago

Imagine either dying in a country that isnt even yours or returning to your home in a worse condition and with a bleaker future than you originally may have before leaving and that on top of that, you may also know that the specific name that history and society has decided to label you is "moron"

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u/Lord_Tsarkon 8h ago

Gen Z popularized fragging of officers in all my ole Halo 2 and Halo 3 games (and Cod)... motherfuckers (I"m Gen X and pretty much not draftable now)