by Jeff Stepper

Created on: March 19, 2007   Last Updated: September 09, 2008

Instituting the draft is not a good idea without major reform. My personal belief is that we should not have one at all. By having a draft that signals that we are preparing for war. I think that instead of preparing to wage war, we should be preparing to wage peace.

The last time that we had a draft, during the Vietnam war, the majority of people that were drafted were the lower middle class and the poor inter-city youth. The reason for this is because of all the deferments that were offered. If you had the money, you could go to college, thereby avoiding the draft. And if you were really rich and well connected, you could just join the National Guard to stay state-side and then go AWOL without any repercussions, like GW.

I would never support a draft. If it were to be instated though, then there would have to be reforms to make it more equitable so that everyone had the same chance of being drafted, regardless of their station in life. I believe that if all the rich and the powerful in this country had the same chance as everyone else of having to send their children off to war, there would be a lot less war in this world.

On a side note, I think that if an administration, such as the current one, wanted to declare war, then their kids should be the first to go. If GW's twins would have had to go to Iraq and fight, do you think that he would have been so quick to invade? I don't think so.

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