Fight the Good Fight

[Mythsaje]

Wow. This whole draft debate has touched off a few firestorms. I don't mind, really. My handle was bare inches from being "Stormsaje." I think debate is healthy. And while some of the debate here today has made me want to tear my hair out, it hasn't genuinely angered me. More like exasperation.

That I can handle. I'm not taking it personally, so I don't have to retreat. (I don't engage in debates when I get too emotionally involved--prevents me from saying things I REALLY don't want to say).

Here it is in a nutshell.

I oppose the draft. Period. No exceptions. I think forced service is anethema to a free, open, democratic society. I don't CARE what your rationale is. Anything can be rationalized.

Make NO mistake. What we're talking about here is taking kids who are presently minding their own business (whatever it might be), dragging them through training, slapping a gun in their hand, and sending them off to kill MORE people in order to support Bushco's present War of imperialistic aggression.

The argument is that it will "level the playing field" and make EVERYONE responsible for the war. If you think that the elites won't come up with new and inventive ways to prevent their children from fighting, you're dreaming. The power and influence they have NOW is worlds away from the power and influence they had forty years ago. You have NO idea. Some of them have more money than you can even IMAGINE.

No, what it will mean is that we'll be acting in COLLUSION with their future plans to invade other countries. It won't PREVENT wars. It'll make them easier to justify.

How so? Well, we certainly won't suffer from a lack of volunteers to fight in stupid fucking wars. Need more meat for the grinder? Well, hell. Just draft some more boys. It's as easy as pushing a button. Need a reason? Bomb something of OURS. "Oh my God. They just blew up our embassy in <insert city here>."

Protests? :rofl: Look like volunteers to me. Grab 'em up, say they're "aiding the enemy" and ship them off to the front lines or Gitmo. What are they going to do about it?

God, some people are suckers.

The FIRST thing people need to do when something is suggested is look at both the positive AND the negative. What's the WORSE thing that could be done with this, if someone had the chance? Never, ever assume that it's all for the good. It NEVER works out that way. Not when you're talking about the realities of power.

How people who talk about how 9/11 may have been orchestrated, and that the Diebold machines are stealing our votes, can possibly think that handing them future generations of OUR CHILDREN could ever be a good thing.

Two weeks into winning the last election and we're thinking "hell, we got everything under control."

The fuck we do.

C'mon, people. Use your heads. Trust NOTHING.

All information, regardless of source, is suspect.

[Kiouni]

1. Agreed

excellent post. I understand this whole setup is about having debates and more accountability, but there are other methods available to us to change these problems.

this reminds me of how Nebraska was trying to pass TABOR and the best argument against it i heard was "change the people not the system."

[Erika]

2. Insults to other DU posters is something else

Not too productive on other messages.

[Mythsaje]

3. Asking a question

is hardly an insult, Erika.

Questioning your rationale for something to which you attest is hardly a insult.

Telling you to try reading my journal if you think I EVER supported this war, is not an insult.

Suggesting you look up a term you don't seem to understand is NOT an insult.

Me smiling as I respond to your deliberate attempts at mockery is NOT an insult.

If I wanted to insult you, I could do it. But I want to make you think. Consider. Realize that there's a down-side to what you're advocating.

[Erika]

4. You asked if I was talking out of my rear end again

How would you take that? That post has been sent to the mods.

[Mythsaje]

5. You refuse to check the veracity

of something you're claiming (basically, that I'm MORE against the war now than I was before this debate began) and you take offense at the language I used to call you on it?

Are you serious? And you follow me through several threads on the subject and keep saying the same USELESS things over and over again as if somehow I'm going to realize all of a sudden that ONE MAN can change a whole unbalanced system and make everything work just fine and therefore justify sending thousands of more of our young people to kill and die in unjust wars?

You alerted the Mods because I said something you found upsetting, yet you harass me through multiple threads? Did *I* report you for YOUR violation of the rules? That is SO... <sigh> Oh, forget it.

[Erika]

6. We'll let the mods decide

Agreed?

[Mythsaje]

7. Fine.

You know, I wasn't trying to be insulting. I was truly curious whether you'd actually read my journal and knew who you were talking to here. Or if you were assuming facts not in evidence by continuing to assume that my position on the war had changed in the past few days.

It hasn't.

And I didn't use the word "again," btw.

[Erika]

8. The post was forwarded to the mods

Let them decide.

[acmejack]

9. You build a compelling case, Saje.

I like the line about not getting overly emotional in your debates, something this poster will never be able to claim. But that is another story. I don't trust the people in charge that is for sure, but they can draft our kids as it is now, a simple stroke of the pen will allow them to do so won't it? I know the SSS Boards have been reconstituted and are ready to go everywhere in the Country.

I thought Rangel was proposing Mandatory National Service vice Military Service Conscription in time of war, is that not so?

[Mythsaje]

10. I have less of a problem with the proposal

than those who don't seem to understand the possible repercussions of what the unscrupulous might do with it.