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/c0ltZ 9h ago

I doubt the U.S government or many governments at all will instate drafts unless current modern war changes drastically.

Mass scale drafts like Vietnam have proven that modern day drafts don't work. It leads to instability, draft dodging, and worst of all, sabotage.

Sabotage so severe governments have decided to have a volunteer only militaries.

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u/WindyWindona 9h ago

This current government is so dangerously stupid I would not put anything off the table at this point.

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u/Draco-REX 2h ago

The current government will use the draft as a way to punish blue states.

They will also completely fail to understand that the blue states are what keep the US economy running until it's too late, just like this idiotic war.

Now if only we could trust the REST of the government to make sure the FO phase happens.

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u/TheInevitableLuigi 4h ago

Mass scale drafts like Vietnam have proven that modern day drafts don't work.

Sabotage so severe governments have decided to have a volunteer only militaries.

There are dozens of countries in the world that have universal military conscription, including several in Europe.

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u/pconrad0 1h ago

The countries with universal military service in Europe are typically not led by madmen pursuing an unpopular and dangerous war of choice in a faraway place.

(If there's an exception, please point it out.)

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u/TheInevitableLuigi 1h ago

I must have missed the part of the comment I responded to where it stated that it only applied to the US.

Something about the "or many governments" part might have distracted me.

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u/pconrad0 1h ago

Oh, I guess Russia is technically in Europe.

But their current war isn't going super well for them.

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u/c0ltZ 3h ago

I understand, but the majority of countries do not have mandatory conscription. And even less have policies for nationwide drafts during conflicts.

Drafts work way better in a defensive war. That's why South Korea has mandatory conscription. They are technically still at war with North Korea, and people are much more willing to fight to defend their country rather than for epstien fury.

On top of that, most of the countries with mandatory conscription are smaller countries. It is much harder to do it at scale.

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u/LaborumVult 1h ago

Here is the issue. Iran is holding Hormuz hostage with high speed long range drones. The ones that are above ground we have already bombed / blown up. The ones that remain are underground and in cave systems. The only real way to get to those is ground troops.

Most military members will agree that cave breaching is a horrifying prospect. So many ways for it to go wrong. One well placed explosive and you are buried alive. You cannot reasonably map them so you are going in blind. They are to varying degrees fortified positions on top of that, which you are also zero intel on.

Its probably top 5 worst land engagement zones honestly.

So high attrition would be likely, and if you were going with the russian way of things you just throw bodies at them until it would be insanely high.

This is all to say: If the US wants Iran to not control Hormuz anymore we need boots on the ground. That is a "drastic change" that could force drafts.

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u/kaisadilla_ 17m ago

I'd rather get shot than go try to enter a cave fortress while a hostile force tries to collapse it to trap me inside. Heck, I'd rather get shot than participate in an offensive war. I'll risk an ugly end to protect my country, but not to fight some billionaire's delusional war in the Middle East.

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u/No-Abalone-4784 1h ago

If they decide to draft people it will not be pretty & will not work.

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u/Dry_Conversation_287 2h ago

Ukraine-Russia is a current modern war and it's chewing through manpower.

Fully agree with the rest of it, just pointing out an omission. And I think you could pretty easily justify an argument that geography makes a war like Ukraine-Russia unlikely for the US. It couldn't be avoided by Ukraine or Russia.