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I remember when young boys were still being drafted for the Vietnam war. I was a high school senior during the 1970/71 school year. I was fairly popular in school, but I had no delusions of beauty or sensuality greater than my peers. Yet, I had five proposals of marriage during that year of my life. If I just told the individual stories of each proposal, you might think I was something special. The truth, boys were terrified that they would be drafted into a war that had received such negative press that, even if a young man wanted to join the military, he was discouraged by myths, half-truths, and the unknown.

I saw the fear and terror up close and personal. When a young man begs you to marry him to essentially save his life, it breaks your heart that he would consider revealing his fears, not knowing how you would react. As a female who despises war, violence of any kind, actually, I cannot imagine receiving a letter in the mail to report to a processing center for the military because I had been drafted. Why do we expect eighteen year-old boys to embrace this practice?

The draft is immoral because it is a forced game of Russian Roulette. I realize that our nation must have large numbers of trained men ready to defend our citizens. I believe there is a better way than the draft system used in the past. Eighteen is too young an age for a boy to be sent off to war. America allows eighteen year-old teens to vote, but says they are too young to drink. This is using good judgement. A person can be old enough for some things and too young for others at the same time.

All able-bodied men should be required to have six weeks of intense training in preparation for military duty when they are twenty years old. They should be required to attend on-going training one week every six months until they reach a certain age. Those who choose to join the military will be more mature and have a good expectation of what is required. Those who choose not to join will still be prepared to defend our nation if it is in impending danger from a hostile nation or group. I have no doubt that objectors of the draft will rise to the occasion to defend America from invading forces. Keeping young men trained and ready serves us better than snatching boys as they are maturing and sending them straight into the battlefield.

We must have a strong military, but drafting boys for the purpose of having large numbers to send in as surges, generally insuring large casualties, is not the way to accomplish this. My idea may not be feasible, but I believe intelligent minds can devise a method better than the madness of drafting children.

Learn more about this author, Barbara Stanley.
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