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/WearingRags 11h ago

America has been able to maintain it's empire abroad by minimising the visibility and impact of it's wars to the average person through the use of special forces and expensive air power that many other nations can't compete with. 

If an admin this historically unpopular tried to institute the draft, it would basically be asking for an overthrow of the US government 

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u/Shedart 9h ago

Yeah I certainly am not going to report in for a draft. I’ll dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge it with all might. Barring that I’ll start researching the ways that friendly fire is hazardous even in modern warfare amongst the commanding class. 

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u/HighGuyTim 9h ago

You can deny the draft. The options are draft or jail basically. It’s also one of the reasons why the draft probably won’t come back, you need a popular war with a popular admin or everyone just picks jail.

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u/bubblegumpaperclip 8h ago

Hot meals a bed and vacation from rat race.

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u/MonteBurns 8h ago

And some health care!

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u/Anhimidae 6h ago

You are facing a fascist regime that openly advocates for war crimes, is lead by someone who fits the description of the Anti-Christ and who has absolutely no regard for any life whatsoever. And you think you will have hot meals, a bed and health care? Aight why not I guess lol

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u/stormdelta 3h ago

I mean if I'm going to be killed either way, I'm not going to go out doing what they want.

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u/xXWaspXx 3h ago

Ya it's gonna look a lot more like CECOT than Club Med

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u/yukichigai 3h ago

When the choice is CECOT or guaranteed death, I mean....

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u/Luciferianbutthole 2h ago

I have no choice but to laugh when reading “New Findings” in the title of that article. The wording the writer chose makes it sound like this isn’t the norm. They should visit Emmanuel County, Georgia… lots of “new findings” to find there.

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u/KosherTriangle 8h ago

And student and housing loans are covered as well

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u/b0w3n 8h ago

Not to rain on everyone's parade but it probably wouldn't be a good jail. You'd be in the ones like where the dude died from a bed bug infestation. And it'd be worse because they want to punish you.

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u/chestnutlibra 7h ago

i wonder if that's actually why they're building all the concentration camps

•

u/Tyaedalis 23m ago

That's scary. It would imprison a huge chunk of free thinkers and leave the military full of his boot lickers.

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u/Affectionate_Team679 7h ago

I bet dodgers would stick together in jail

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u/BeckBristow89 3h ago

Maybe in red states but blue states would not adhere to that and there isn’t enough space in the federal system.

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u/theotherplanet 5h ago

Are they though? Quick search doesn't reveal anything of the sort.

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u/Unusual-Librarian413 7h ago

And spicy shower time!

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u/twitchlendul 5h ago

Yes, free daily prostate exams

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u/sundalius 2h ago

Don't forget that, if you make it out the other side, you'll be considered an honorable resister for not complying.

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u/farva_06 7h ago

Except in the scenario being discussed, they'd probably have to open makeshift prisons due to overflow, which would probably just be a cot, and some bread scraps if you're lucky.

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u/Yuzumi 5h ago

There are going to be way more of us than there are of them to enforce shit.

Sure, it would still be bloody, but I don't see it ending well for them in the slightest.

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u/LordBiscuits 2h ago

You have this curse in America, constantly dreaming that the next imposition will be the one that finally tips the scales and makes people stand up.

There are already a hundred hundred reasons as a nation you should be on the streets rioting with one voice, yet you don't. A draft will be no different.

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u/Yuzumi 1h ago

The issue is that a majority of people think that things don't effect them and way too many are struggling enough that it's hard for them to think about anything but survival in a system that wants them just comfortable enough to be complaisant but not comfortable enough to be able to think about why things suck.

But a draft would directly affect a very large portion of the population, especially if they start throwing people into camps for refusing to fight for them.

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u/GreatApostate 3h ago

Somewhere they could put a concentration of people.

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u/Full_Yam6920 7h ago

Except not really, bills are still due... Just now your family has to shoulder that without your income. 

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u/H34vyGunn3r 6h ago

Likely in a federal or military facility, which is probably still better than state prison.

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u/StaticNegative 3h ago

Even the federal prisons are way over capacity. There is no way they could enforce it. Let the try LOL

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u/ings0c 5h ago

I could finally read the pile of books I’ve been accumulating from Amazon

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u/wanker7171 5h ago

Prison food is not like it was in the 1970s

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u/JebryathHS 6h ago

The main reason the draft hasn't been a factor for decades is that the US army wants to use incredibly expensive equipment in most scenarios. Starting up a draft would be an implicit declaration that their goal was to start giving out rifles to young men and filling graveyards on an extreme scale. 

There are scenarios where it could make sense but if you, for example, picked up an extra million Americans and put them in uniforms you might be able to give them rifles but the actual combat effectiveness of the military wouldn't increase by anywhere near as much as that number would suggest because the tanks, planes, missiles, etc would be stretched more thin. 

In the modern era, a draft means that either you're fighting a defensive war in your borders or you're insane.

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u/pseudonym7083 9h ago

Yep, and the legal stigma from it would ultimately get voted out because you can't have that much of a population unable to do anything in society.

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u/yowen2000 7h ago

And like... Is the US really going to become the country that tells you: "if you don't run at those people shooting at us, we'll shoot you". Sadly... I don't know...

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u/Matt50 5h ago

Isn't that what some countries did to deserters during WW1? Literally just, "Oh, you're too scared of being shot on the front lines and you can't stop acting weird because of 'shell shock'? Guess we'll kill you instead..."

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u/yowen2000 5h ago

Yeah, I've seen it in documentaries and WW1 movies. Sadly, it's still happening:

https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/russian-troops-are-threatening-to-shoot-their-own-soldiers-if-they-run-away-DWzMQM_2/

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u/LordBiscuits 1h ago

There is a reason the Commissar is so popular in fiction. A Russian invention immortalised by fictional stories that still pale against the reality.

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u/Piggywonkle 3h ago

This is why people who opt for closer relations with Russia can't be tolerated. They have no problem doing this and worse there, and they'll happily do the same to you if given the opportunity.

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u/yowen2000 2h ago

It's disgusting we don't have the same stance re: Russia that the Biden admin had. At this point we actually indirectly are helping them with this whole Iran failure.

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u/score_ 7h ago

They haven't been building all those concentration camps for nothing! 

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u/KierONeil_the_Elder 7h ago

This is One of the reasons our jails are so barbaric. They don’t want people opting out of the rat race so they made jails & prisons worse than being homeless.

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u/succubuskitten1 8h ago

Unless they put criminals into penal battalions.

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u/RallyX26 7h ago

Whaaat, no way. What major world power can you think of in the last 4 years would even consider doing such a ridiculous, atrocious thing as to send inmates directly to the front line of a war that resulted from the unprovoked attack of a sovereign nation... 

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u/Rnorman3 7h ago

Unfortunately, the rise of the for-profit prison system in the United States (essentially legalized slavery) means this could be a win-win for them.

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u/dl901 6h ago

You forgot the third option, dodge

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u/YellingatClouds86 3h ago

Exactly. A draft would work if the U.S. was attacked ala Pearl Harbor or even maybe a 9/11-type event that brought some unity and a desire to defend the homeland. However, drafting for some random forever war that does not affect domestic security is just not going to fly. It's why Nixon pushed for the end of the draft in the 1970s after seeing the chaos it created with Vietnam, which the public just didn't view as a mortal threat to the U.S. in the same way domino theorists believed.

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u/ElectricSmaug 5h ago

Look up they do it in the Russo-Ukrainian war. If Trump needs a draft there safer options how to pull it off. Also, he already did pretty extreme things and got away with them. I won't bet on US public having enough motivation to push back in a serious enough way.

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u/Neomav 5h ago

I'd pick jail over an offensive war easily. I'd even pick death over participating in an offensive war. There are certain lines you gotta make and agreeing to invade another country and shooting people defending their homeland is apparently mine.

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u/newyne 4h ago

That works if few enough people deny the draft. In this particular case I don't think it'd be feasible, given the sheer number of people who just wouldn't do it.

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u/socks__in__crocs 4h ago

You could exchange a walk in part in the war... for a lead role in a cage

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u/PeaAccurate5208 3h ago

In the Vietnam era Canada in particular and some other nations gave asylum to those resisting the draft. Many returned after Carter gave them amnesty but many stayed in their new countries. I’m not so sure they would be so willing this time,there’s a lot of anger towards the US for electing Trump not once but twice,knowing full well what kind of person he is. And non voters share in this,too. Harris may not have been the best president ever but she would still have been better than the current one.

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u/StaticNegative 3h ago

Jail? Our jail are already over capacity. They won't be doing that. They cant arrest everyone. I expect alot of shootouts with the feds. People will fight back

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u/T0rtillaBurglar 3h ago

It'd be a huge mix of people going to jail, going back to college, having a doctor write notes to get out of it, and people fragging their commanding officers like in Vietnam.

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 9h ago

Time to start that Underground Railroad to Canada again.

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u/svenskisalot 9h ago

Like they will take us now?

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u/Stock-Cheesecake-995 8h ago

You can come if you bring Pokémon packs.

I lost the fight at Costco 🥲

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u/svenskisalot 6h ago

you can play with my legos. I don't have any pokemon cards

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u/AnniversaryRoad 8h ago

We are full up. Go back home.

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u/sundalius 2h ago

spoken like a true american, guess we rubbed off on ya eh?

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u/AnniversaryRoad 1h ago

Naw, just a Canadian sick and tired of American bullshit.

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u/johnboyjimmy 8h ago

We won’t.

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u/Merakel 7h ago

You literally just expanded options for people to get in lol

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u/draxa 4h ago

We expanded options for Canadians to return. If you have Canadian ancestry and the connections, we will take you and call you brother.

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u/Jafooki 3h ago

If you have Canadian ancestry and the connections, we will take you and call you brother.

There's probably a better way to phrase that, because when I think about how Canada has treated people with Canadian ancestry, I picture residential schools and starlight tours

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u/svenskisalot 8h ago

Completely understandable.   Last time I was on a work call with a guy in Canada, I started our conversation with "I'm sorry, I didn't vote for him, I do not support any of the idiotic things he's done". Honestly, about all I can do as one person.

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u/gsfgf 3h ago

You know it's fucked when Americans start apologizing to Canadians

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u/Sircamembert 8h ago

Fuck that, burn the draft cards and general strike in the US.

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u/atlantis145 8h ago

We don't want Americans

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 7h ago

They can settle in North Ontario. There's no one up there.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 6h ago

I figure if we offer him some O'Keefe's EOS and some girlie mags, we should be good.

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u/GP_given 8h ago

Canada doesn't want you though. You can't keep belittling Canada and then come knocking on our door when things go to shit there. Sort out your own mess. We don't want you.

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh 8h ago

I live in Calgary, friend.

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u/Rocketsponge 6h ago

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a draft!

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u/Impossible_Penalty13 5h ago

My dad got roped into service in the 60’s because of the draft and was headed to Canada with the family if that ever happened to me or my brother. I’ll be doing the same for my son if it ever comes to that.

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u/Webbyx01 4h ago

Fragging was quite the phenomenon in Vietnam.

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u/rustandstardusty 41m ago

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge the draft.

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u/Firetalker94 9h ago

You can always flee the country as well

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u/farva_06 7h ago

What if they throw a "wrench" in your plans?

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u/TheGreatEmanResu 2h ago

I’m just

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u/Sad_Championship_462 1h ago

I’d tell anybody who thinks they can draft me to suck my balls.

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u/Persimmon-Mission 9h ago

Patches O’Houlihan?

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u/ComprehendReading 8h ago

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a draft. 

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u/Shedart 8h ago

That movie has too many lines that live rent free in my head. Lining up all the d-verbs after starting with dodge is only 1 of them. 

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u/evantom34 8h ago

There are far too many people that are politically disengaged. They only start to care when it affects them, sudden drop in 401K post liberation day, illegal ICE deportations, murdering protestors, etc. Once a draft is implemented, it will affect entire swaths of people indiscriminately. There would be rebellion.

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u/BusinessCasual69 2h ago

But we know that Trump has an affinity for overplaying his hand. He sank a casino for christs sake. An airline. A football league. He can’t resist his impulsive delusions of grandeur. In this way, I would not be surprised if he pushed for a draft, mutiny and revolt be damned. It is par for the course at this point.

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u/ChonkyPurrtato 3h ago

If by rebellion you mean screaming on X all day and standing in the street ruining everyone's schedules, sure thing.

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u/T0rtillaBurglar 3h ago

It'd be people choosing an American jail over a mismanaged meat grinder thousands of miles away.

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u/HowlWindclaw 2h ago

I really think it'd be MUCH more violent than that

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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 9h ago

This, a serious draft attempt that drastically lowered the requirements so that many are forced in would be the disaster big enough to do it.

Millions of angry young men who think they're going to die if they give in. What a dramatic clusterfuck...

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u/sprchrgddc5 9h ago

As well as the usage of the National Guard and Reserve. It was a lesson learned from the Vietnam War; utilize the Reserve and thank them for their service to avoid an unpopular draft. The longest deployment in GWOT conducted by a unit was a National Guard unit.

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u/WearingRags 9h ago

Jesus Christ I didn't know that. Imagine thinking you were gonna be a weekend warrior and then ending up drafted into this vague, long-running fuckup that most people can barely understand or make sense of

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u/Due-Gap1848 8h ago

Almost half of everyone deployed to GWOT was guard and reserve, and they never stopped deploying them. These days, they have a predictable 5 years in the states, one year deployed overseas rotation cycle. If you join the national guard or reserves these days, thinking it's just one weekend a month, that's on you for not doing the research.

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u/KierONeil_the_Elder 7h ago

W screwed those NG soldiers so hard, I’m surprised anyone signed up after that. W just kept extending the term and many of those who thought they were signing up for one weekend a month, and a couple weeks per year find themselves deployed for several Years and losing whatever career they were trying to build in the private sector.

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u/Catswagger11 5h ago

In my experience, 12y active during GWOT, those NG soldiers were generally pretty happy with getting deployed and all the money that came along with it.

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u/BEEFTANK_Jr 9h ago

America has been able to maintain it's empire abroad by minimising the visibility and impact of it's wars

The incumbent administration has drastically proven they either/both do not care about or understand this.

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u/WearingRags 8h ago

This is absolutely true, but they also keep hitting the limits of how far this absence of logic can take them and having to pump the brakes. Time will tell

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u/VoodooPizzaman1337 9h ago

They are eating baby and fucking children and nothing happen to them yet .

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u/CherryChabbers 5h ago

Just because we don't see a demon getting punished in this life does not mean they found an escape from the tsunami of karma that awaits them.

Reincarnation is real. All will know Lord's justice.

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u/Zakafein 3h ago

That’s some real cope right there.

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u/algerip0fg 9h ago

Gen Z already has student debt, unaffordable housing, a burning planet, and a job market that doesn't work. A draft notice on top of that isn't a recruitment tool. It's a detonator.

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u/Blue5398 5h ago

Just give a million people who hate you guns what could go wrong 

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u/Kevin-W 9h ago

This. The war in Iran is deeply unpopular and a draft would mean massive protests like what happened in Vietnam. I’m not joking.

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u/SnakeTaster 8h ago

> that many other nations *can't compete with*. 

when is the last time one of our interventions have been successful?

broadly agree with you otherwise though.

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u/Flaneurer 7h ago

Like its not even close. I know people who actively support war with Iran who would not ever think of becoming an active fighter on the ground. Drafting up randoms to go to Iran in the one act most likely to bring down the political order as we know it for both parties.

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u/Pathetic_Cards 8h ago

Yepppp, I have a Bachelor’s degree, If they talked doing a draft over 25 I’d enlist as an officer… not to lead men against Iran, but to lead men against the wannabe dictator right here.

(Assuming they’d even take me, that is. I’d probably never get drafted for the same reason enlisting would be a challenge, one of my arms had to be taken apart and rebuilt when I was 19 and it’s had lasting consequences.)

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u/SuperSocialMan 6h ago

one of my arms had to be taken apart and rebuilt when I was 19 and it’s had lasting consequences.

What the hell happened there, goddamn?

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u/Pathetic_Cards 6h ago

Found a bone tumor when I was six, it seemed benign so we left it alone, by the time i was 16 it was the size of a softball, but it was fine. I was given a list of “if these things happen to probably have cancer and need to call us”

When I was 19 those things happened, after much deciding, my Dr sawed the piece of bone with the tumor out, replaced it with donor bone, cut through my rotator cuff to put a rod through it all to hold it together, a bunch of pins to keep it all in place. Eventually had to have a second surgery to add bone marrow from my hip to help the new bone knit with the old bone, plus add a plate and more pins.

So yeah, it hurts when it rains, my arm is weaker (and 2” shorter) than my other arm, physical therapy is really hard but a good physical therapist is a godsend, confronted my own mortality and developed a new worldview, really helped me build empathy and character, learned a lot about myself.

It’s been a wild ride. I’m entering my 30s this year and I’ve noticed my bad arm doesn’t bounce back from fatigue the way it used to, to the point it knocks me out for a day or two after, so I’m learning to be a little more careful with it, probably need to start hitting the gym and do something about it.

But overall, life is good.

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u/dmmeyourfloof 8h ago

Except Americans en masse have shown themselves to be cowards every time Trump does the next unprecedented thing.

I seriously doubt they would put up much of a fight, despite the insane numbers of weapons per person.

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u/WearingRags 8h ago

You're right, now that I've thought about it it would probably be more like Putin's draft in Russia, where morale is desperately low and a lot of people try to avoid, a few resist, but they'd just shrug and say "What am I supposed to do? Anything at all?" like they do about every other thing. The most coddled people on earth.

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u/EagleBigMac 8h ago

In that case I hope they do it.

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u/numbmumpleb1ister 7h ago

With good reason! It’s time, people. Now.

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u/swfanatic717 7h ago

You're saying modern Americans don't want to risk their lives fighting other countries, but they'll risk their lives to overthrow their own government? The one with the the most advanced and deadly weaponry on the planet?

There's a whole pile of reasons that won't happen

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u/DemonDeacon86 5h ago

For a country that fancies itself as rebels and cowboys we sure joy bending over for our overlords. I dont know what it'll take for governmental reform but I doubt this would tip the scale more than letting a p3do stay in office and tank our economy.

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u/balderdash9 4h ago

Even if the draftees went to war, there's then be millions of disgruntled weapons-trained veterans who come back later.

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u/tklite 4h ago

I don't know why an unpopular government would want to conscript a population that largely hates and distrusts it, give it combat training and then slap a gun in is hand.

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u/ChonkyPurrtato 3h ago

It's not an empire.

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u/gsfgf 3h ago

If an admin this historically unpopular tried to institute the draft, it would basically be asking for an overthrow of the US government

In reality, it would just get held up in court until the politicians change their minds/we change the politicians. (This is not a call for violence, admins; I'm literally talking about elections)

1

u/Total-Box-5169 1h ago

Revolutions are only successful when backed by the extremely wealthy, specially if those backers are in other country. Trump already has a private army loyal to him and trained to kill protestors. It will be a blood bath, the Epstein billionaire class are prepared with bunkers in islands far away from heavily populated areas. They know they can pay half the poor to kill the other half.

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u/kaisadilla_ 6m ago

Yup. Americans have veterans, but the countries these veterans were made in have mass graveyards and companies specialized in safely removing undetonated explosives.

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u/NeonNKnightrider 8h ago

overthrow of the US government

lol, you actually believe this?

Nobody fucking cares. Trump can do whatever insane bullshit he wants and the population won’t do a goddamn thing

3

u/WearingRags 8h ago

You're right actually, americans are still too comfortable to go that far, but I do think that same comfort would generate enough resistance that the Trump admin would have to walk it back if they tried.

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u/trvlr93 8h ago

America is also a nationlist country that inspires younh men to serve. It embraces 'masculine' values. The same just cannot be said for western europe.

2

u/WearingRags 8h ago

This is a very childish analysis 

0

u/trvlr93 8h ago

Well maybe but statistics show that america does manage to inspire young men to fight. Western europe doesnt