Be Afraid, Be VERY Afraid- The Draft May Be Back.....

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so if large numbers of asylum seekers turn up on one's shore, claiming their lives are in danger, what does a country do?

just admit unlimited numbers of alleged asylum seekers or go to war?

I would be willing to bet a large sum of money that there won't be a draft in the USA within the next 5 years. The Republicans don't want to vote for it because they already know that they are doomed in 2008. The Democrats don't want to vote for it (Rangel excepted, perhaps) because they know that they will win hugely in 2008, and there's no good reason to screw this up for the sake of a war they don't even want.

Frankly, I see a new draft in the USA as being much less likely than the sudden creation of single payer health insurance, or nationwide gay marriage. It's just not going to happen.

Unless of course you believe that most members of congress and the senate have no instinct for self-preservation. LOL

How do you figure the Democrats are going to win hugely in 08? Hilary is running away with the nomination, and she has a 50% disapproval rating nationwide. That is with all voters, not just Republicans. I would actually bet on the Republicans to win in 08. The Democrats have terrible candidates.

Are you serious?

I think they're all terrible, personally. But the young people will vote, and the young people are primarily liberal, especially in social matters.

The Democrats will win, unless somebody smuggles in an improbability drive.

If Hillary gets nominated, they'll rally behind her so fast we'll barely remember that they ever didn't like her.

By all accounts, the last election should have been a cinch for the Dems, but they managed to screw it up. In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, "It ain't over 'til it's over".

Touche.

(I am merely a pessimist.)

I am looking forward to '08 personally, I maybe libertarian but social issues are more important to me then economic. Maybe we can shove though some civil rights goodness for gays and polygamy/polyarmory and prevent the flag burning amendment.

I wish I could look forward to it. My prolife position makes the whole process annoying, since it means enough to me to make all other points moot in comparison. I wish there was an effective way of demonstrating with my vote how I really feel about all the various issues.

Meet the insanity of the two party system. nobody gets represented properly.

Flagg, are you saying flags should be burnt or not be burnt?

Why haven't the Yanks got compulsory voting anyway? We've had it since I can remember; if you are on the role, it's vote or get fined. Only way around it is to not enroll, and the only ones who really get away with that are aliens (those from other countries, not outer space; which don't exist anyway). If the Yanks had compulsory voting, maybe some of the nutters they have had in the past wouldn't have been elected, say for eg Nixon. Lennon almost got deported by the US government in the early 70s (their excuse was a drug conviction in 1968) for rabble rousing, but what he was actually trying to do in '72 when he was stirring up was to try to get people off their arses and vote. Nixon may have lost that election had more people voted, and had they been compelled to do so. But we all know that Americans don't like being compelled to do anything; they'll buck authority any way they can. AND they definitely don't like being told when they might actually be wrong.
Invading other countries in the name of 'helping' them just to flex muscle has never worked (as has been said before), with Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Nicaragua only being a few examples. Matter of fact, I'd even go as far to say that if the Yanks hadn't set up a military base on what was once Japanese territory (Pearl Harbour), Japan might not have entered WW2, and 150,000 lives could have been saved because the H bombs wouldn't have been dropped. Not to mention the Australians etc who were killed by the Japanese themselves. It's bad enough when a government goes to war, and asks for a lot of poor sods to volunteer (which they do patriotically sometimes not realising they won't be coming back), they have to draft the other buggers into going when they should have used diplomacy to avoid it in the first place. Now I know some of you are going to say 'what about Australia in WW2?' The main reason we were involved was because we were called upon by the 'mother country' in England as part of the British Empire, and thus couldn't refuse. The Americans on the other hand didn't get involved in the early days of the war in Europe because they didn't see the need. Sure, they sent planes, men and ammo after 1943, and D-Day wouldn't have happened without them, but as it was they landed in the wrong place and it was practically a disaster.
Anyway, the way I see it, if war can be avoided by whatever peaceful measures then those measures should be used. And the perfect answer to it all is, just don't fight in the first place.

Because we value freedom more than you do?

Proves my point. By exercising your so-called right and freedom not to vote, you are depriving your country of the possibility of electing someone who might actually make a difference. I've thought maybe Australia should go down the same path, but I then realised (with the help of my sister who works for the Electoral Commission) that if we went down your path, the same idiots would get in every time, and it would be pointless having elections. Next thing would be a dictatorship, then closely followed by revolution, then anarchy would result. Maybe if America had some of those so-called rights and freedoms withdrawn, then maybe they would realise how lucky they really are.
Let's see what freedoms(?) there are: The right to bear arms = more deaths from gunshots and street violence. The right not to vote = disproportionate electoral procedure. The freedom to have a cheap and affordable heath system = poor people get sent to the back of the queue because they don't have HMO cover. Right to employment = Only for those willing to sacrifice basic standards and work for less pay in non-protected jobs.
There may be others, but to me, they are not necessarily 'freedoms' or 'rights', possibly they could be privileges that people have taken to be rights.
Here, we may complain about some things, but at least we don't go out and blow our neighbour's heads off because they are playing their music too loud, we can make sure that whoever we vote for will get elected fairly, and that we can still have a laugh and not take ourselves to seriously.
Apart from that, unfortunately, we still have to send troops to tin-pot wars when we are told. Wish we didn't have to, but agreements are agreements, no matter how bad they are.

The choice not to vote is as much an expression of political will as going to the ballot box.

Apathy, more like.

Well, let's see how you would go if you were in a country where you were constantly persecuted because of your race, colour or religion or were constantly at risk of being blown up.