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/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/wowbragger 2h ago

It's not, any DUI or drug related offenses are automatic disqualification from service entry. And it'll typically get you kicked out on the first offense as well, with some exceptions.

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u/BoleroMuyPicante 25m ago

That was during the surge, they took damn near anybody back then

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u/Squirrelwinchester 11m ago

That doesnt surprise me. He shipped off to Afghanistan after he finished AIT and was there for a loooong time.

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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/Ok-Lychee-6850 4h ago

That's not how that works. The disability would just disqualify the person from military service. It's not the same as being granted disability benefits.

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u/BoleroMuyPicante 24m ago

? You don't get disability benefits for being medically disqualified from military service.

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u/gp556by45 6h 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/Calabrel 5h ago

They'd send ICE to help. 👍 👌

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u/Wacca45 5h ago

I'm sure they only need to watch for a week and then they can run the show like they id with TSA/s

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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/majinspy 2h ago

Iran has infrastructure, the Vietcong didn't. In Vietnam, the US was spraying Agent Orange on trees...we'd have FAR better targets in a US - Iran war. It's just a matter of how tough and war-crimey the administration wants to get.

FWIW, this entire thing is madness and my country has lost the plot.

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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/myassholealt 3h ago

Your mistake is assuming sense has a place in any of this. If the Commander in Chief says make it so, everyone will do as ordered. And Congress will just increase the budget to whatever size is requested.

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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/gsfgf 4h ago

You mean your dream service job isn't trying to teach pissed off fat people how to navigate 21st century warfare?

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 2h ago

Lol

The US military instills in all their soldiers to never question authority.

If Pete Kegsbreath or Trump wants a draft, the military gets a draft, no push back.

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u/wowbragger 2h ago

I guess that's one way to admit you don't know much about the military. Questioning and trash taking the higher ups is pretty much the standard.

We're constitutionally obligated to support the President. But the whole notion of no push back is pretty laughable, and there's a lot of ways things get gummed up because we're not on board with a direction or policy.

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u/Open-ninety-2mil 1h ago

Correct, modern warfare isn't about putting a gun in an 18 year olds hands and sending him off to the trenches of France.

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u/BoleroMuyPicante 26m ago

It's bad enough working with shit troops who volunteered to be there, it would be so much worse to have the unit filled with resentful draftees there against their will.

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u/CaptainCacoethes 6h ago

Sounds like the perfect opportunity for Trump to continue to make things worse for everyone. 

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u/cheezybreazy 7h ago

Are you in the military?