Why so much support for the draft?
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RandomFact
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 11 Aug 2018
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 51
Location: California
I have only heard two arguments in favor of a draft that I found to be the least bit compelling. The first is that it prevents war mongering, authoritarian personalities from monopolizing the armed forces. The second is that it ensures (if implemented without loopholes, which is a big ‘if’) that everyone has some “skin in the game.” As it stands now in the US, those with more money and education are largely exempted from experiencing the personal costs of military operations. It is much easier to support this and that peacekeeping mission (if you are liberal) or antiterrorism operation (if you are conservative) when you don’t have to worry that you or any of your immediate relatives will be the ones whose lives are sacrificed for the cause.
Both of these arguments give me pause, particularly the second one. But if I were ever put in a position to vote to reinstate a draft, I still don’t know that I would do it. As compelling as the second argument is, there is almost no way a draft would treat *everyone* equally. I am now in my mid-40s and well past the age when I had to register for selective service. Barring some extraordinary situation, I would almost certainly never be forced to serve were the draft reinstated. That means I would be voting to impose the obligation entirely on other people whose only difference from me is the decade in which they happened to be born. It would feel hypocritical for me to insist that they serve when I didn’t have to.
I can't help but to wonder, down the road we're heading, will a draft even be considered? With automation, there's a lower need for personnel. Russia and China are developing military AI to support fully autonomous warfare. The US will eventually start doing that I'm sure (but it's not even on any priority lists, useless crap is), and so assuming we have that, I think we could be in the last few decades of drafting being a topic of debate, as everything advances onto further automation.
Just thinking. So, as a result, that must mean there will come a day within this century in which the draft loses support because it will simply be unfeasible.
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"It’s not until they tell you you’re going to die soon that you realize how short life is. Time is the most valuable thing in life because it never comes back. And whether you spend it in the arms of a loved one or alone in a prison-cell, life is what you make of it. Dream big."
-Stefán Karl Stefánsson
10 July, 1975 - 21 August, 2018.
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