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Reckoning's avatar

I think a couple of things have changed since the draft was implemented force decades ago. I understand the former draft had a kind of summer camp quality where young men could learn to fire a weapon, drive a truck and maybe be stationed somewhere fun, domestically or in Europe. I have known Germans and Finns who were drafted and had a blast. My father in law has stories of tussles with NCOs in Communist Eastern Europe that sound like something from the movie Stripes.

In contrast, a modern draftee experience would likely mean endless DEI lectures and being posted to some Godforsaken Middle Eastern hellhole.

The rationale is also weak. Back then there was an obvious Cold War. Now it’s a case where politicians in the West just can’t say no and want the US to serve questionable foreign and moneyed interests. It sounds more like the pre-WWI army that worked for United Fruit and the like, and that was a small military.

So I don’t think the draft is coming back. The last thing the powers that be want is armed and lean young people.

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