It’s the only fair thing as it’s usually rich people that vote for the war and poor people who are drafted.
I think we should have amended the constitution where you had to vote publicly and if you voted yes, you would be required to enlist. We’d have a lot fewer wars as we probably would not have entered WWI, Vietnam, Gulf Wars or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We would have fought in WWII. I’m uncertain about Korea
Wintermute - are the requirements on deployment relaxed in wartime or are they almost as strict as during peacetime
SP is pretty young, but I’ll bet he’s heard this song at some point. I know GP has. It was VERY popular back in the late 60’s. It’s also one of the first songs I learned to play drums to.
no the true issue is if we ever fight another war, fight like WWII. We fight to win and don’t put restrictions on our forces like in vietnam or korea. We couldn’t cross into other countries where the enemy was hiding. Screw that we go in and kill them all where ever they are.
Just one comment, but to my knowledge there has never been any nationwide referendum on whether the US should join a war or not. For that matter, I don’t know of any provision for that in the Constitution. I always thought that Congress had the power to declare war.
That’s true, but I still maintain that if we still had a draft, we would not have incurred the costs of two gulf wars because it would take a LOT more than “we don’t want the evidence to come in the form of a mushroom cloud”. We didn’t have a draft so the vast majority of Americans didn’t have a stake in going to war…all that they were called on to do was put a yellow ribbon on the back of their SUV.
I had a friend at work during the second gulf war who as a big Bush patriot and was rah rah behind stopping Saddam and his WMD’s. She had two sons in their early 20’s who were NOT “volunteers”. I had mentioned that I thought that we may well see the return of the draft. She paused a minute and said “I hope not”…as her sons had to register with selective service, and with a draft, THEY could be sent over there.
So maybe SP’s comment should be “if you voted for someone who votes to go to war”…OF course, in the case of the gulf war, you get the usual comment from fence sitters regarding that war of “most democrats voted for it too”.
One comment said that the worst part of the Vietnam War wasn’t the heat or constant enemy ambushes, it was Fortunate Son playing non stop day and night. I can tell you that as a 12 year old that was nailing ALL of the drums on this song, I felt pretty bad ass…FWIW - I can still nail it.
As it would be a public vote, no one who can’t deploy or over age 45 should be able to vote for the war. Only those who vote YES should be required to enlist as well as those who volunteer, have volunteered or on reserves
You should be of age and ideally deployable to be able to vote in favor
I was around just for a short period of WWII and much too young to vote or serve. I don’t have a link, but I suspect if FDR had put it up for a vote, the U.S. wouldn’t shown much support for a war across the Atlantic. That is until Pearl Harbor. Without the Japanese attack the U.S. might not have entered the war in Europe until it was too late, if at all. And, without U.S. support Europe most or all of Europe would have fallen to the Fascists and perhaps the U.S. might have gone that way, too. (Or did that happen anyway?)
I was getting at that the first people who are drafted should be those who vote YES. Also if you’re over 45, you should be barred from voting because you don’t have a stake or vested interest if you have voted yes
People who actually have to go to war for voting YES is very different from other people voting YES and you being forced to join, even if you vote NO. Yes should mean that even if you’re not in a combat role (aka over 45) you should be forced to serve
Considering that individual citizens will never have a vote to go to war, that won’t happen. But if we want to tie wars and rights together, then I would prefer that the US adopt a stance similar to the Israeli’s…if you want to own a gun, you have to serve in the military first. That sort of addresses the “well regulated militia” part of the Second Amendment without infringing on the rest of that right. The Israeli’s don’t specify fighting in a war, but I think if we required military service before we allowed gun ownership, many people would not want to vote for candidates with a hawkish world view.