Should senior citizens be drafted?

[Telly Savalas]

[efhmc]

1. At what age is one a senior citizen, exactly? I have a ranch to run but it

sounds like a nice change of pace to me.

[Telly Savalas]

2. If you're old enough to get a discount at the movie theater

you're old enough to serve.

Freedom isn't free.

[Sparkly]

16. If you're young enough NOT to get a discount at the movie theater,

you have no right to demand a damned thing from people who lived under the draft.

[Greybnk48]

3. The last anti-war rally I attended three years ago

I stood next to a woman in the bitter cold who was in her 80's. There was only one other protester there with us (about 40 people) who was younger than about 45. Also, I don't know any seniors who are for this war. I have only found younger people who support the war (say 40 and under). AND, they're all here. So, in actuality, they don't support the war, they "support" the war. Those are the people who should be drafted.

[skipos]

4. We are ready to fight!!!

[Hippo_Tron]

5. Thanks for posting sarcasm better than I did

[No Exit]

6. All senior citizens who are politicians should be drafted.

It's a great way to promote fellowship and collegiality among them!

Some of them will don their new uniforms bursting their buttons with pride (or perhaps merely from high living.)

Others of them will take to the streets, with "Hell no, I won't go!" tastefully etched on the sides of their limousines and luxury SUV's, as they whiz by the unwashed masses and other trash on the sidewalks.

All of them will have the chance to show their love of country and toughness.

Some of them will be killed by "friendly fire". Well, dammit, it takes a while to learn how to use all these high-tech weapons-of-mass-destruction, don'tcha know? Especially for a certain rather elderly senator from Alaska.

Senator McCain will, of course, be taken prisoner early on, but will continue to run his criminal enterprises from prison--just like any other organized-crime don.

[mentalsolstice]

7. What if they already served?

My spouse is heading into that age group and retirement looms. However, he served 14 months "in country" during a war he didn't believe in back then. Would he have to do it again? If so, he requests that this time he can fight for a good, noble cause. Got any?

[Telly Savalas]

8. It's easy for older people to intellectualize the war

if they don't have skin in the game.

Kick.

[Sparkly]

10. They HAD "skin in the game."

That's what people who never lived under the draft seem unable to understand.

[Telly Savalas]

11. So the draft was a good idea in Vietnam?

[Sparkly]

14. I replied to: "It's easy for older people to intellectualize the war"

"if they don't have skin in the game."

What a HUGE leap of logic to get to, "So the draft was a good idea in Vietnam?"

Obviously, I neither said nor implied any such thing. (I'd say "nice try," but in fact it was pretty amateur.)

[Sparkly]

9. They already were.

Or at least, got numbers and lived with the threat.

[Telly Savalas]

12. Well, if it was good for them then, it should be good for them now.

[Sparkly]

15. "If it was good for them"....?!

Who said "It was good for them?"

Honestly, if you want to argue with strawmen, you'll have to try harder than that.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. Thanks for being the first to post one of these ludicrous polls...

that actually have anything resembling your option #5.

... happy thanksgiving. :)

[LeFleur1]

17. Fun Topic

Actually, a good lot of the Senior Citizens took to the streets to do away with the draft. You won't find many of them who support it. :)

[Sparkly]

18. Yeah, "fun."

A lot of them also lived with a "number," saw their friends and family die or come back devastated, and a lot came back and fought against the war as veterans.

No rational person will support the idea of a military draft for unnecessary, stupid, fruitless, greedy, or otherwise ill-conceived wars.

But the notion that the service of generations has created a generation with no clue what that meant, a generation that finds it "unfair" to be required even to do the horrible service of picking up trash or serving soup, is astonishing to me.

[MrSlayer]

19. Absolutely. I think they should be the first people drafted.

They'd always be able to steal a march on the enemy because they get up so goddamn early. We just have to make sure Halliburton sets the breakfast buffets on time and we can't lose.

[Buck Rabbit]

20. Draft should start with 50 year old men and women and work down

in age as needed.

That age group has never faced a draft. Forty to fifty year olds are more mature and experienced, are still physically fit and have had twice as long to live as 20 year-olds who are more prone to make rash mistakes. Previous service excludes from the draft and only one of two parents (same or mixed gender) can be called at the same time.

Besides as a 52 year old who already faced the draft this plan keeps my fur out of the game.