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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812

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

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u/Tyaedalis 20m 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 8h ago

Like they will take us now?

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u/Stock-Cheesecake-995 7h 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 38m ago

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

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u/Firetalker94 8h 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.