I Stand for the National Anthem

[Nithavela]

I'm no expert on this but I was told long ago that there will never be a forced draft ever again because that is what caused the 60s. That when you are a military that stations itself all over the world, and you combine that with forced service, that that lights a fire in people that causes them to rebel 20 times worse about the justness of our military actions. When body bags are coming home with Americans who didn't even want to be in the military, their loved ones will go crazy compared to dead soldiers who chose to enlist.

That's just what I've heard, do you believe that theory?

I think it wasn't the only reason. The invention of the contraceptive pill, for example, led to the sexual revolution and liberation that was a big part of the 60s.

Also, it's just no longer neccessary. The time where wars were decided by large amounts of relatively shortly trained troops wielding relatively weak equipment are over. Today, wars are won by drone operators, helicopter pilots, special forces and rocket engineers. In the not so far future, you can add artificial intelligences to that list.

A draft wouldn't supply anything modern armed forces need.

 

[bhsmte]

Honestly? If I'm not mistaken, a lot of that started after 9/11. I'm not completely comfortable with it. Honoring the military I don't mind, but the martial presence is a bit too towards the fascistic for me.
Ringo

Flyovers may have picked up after 9/11, but they were doing them beforehand as well.

 

[Sketcher]

I can't tell who this was addressed to, and which statement it was regarding.

The guy sitting on the flag.

 

[RDKirk]

I thought the dropping of the college deferments was done to placate people who were complaining that the draft was unfair.

I said "nobody" I should have said "the well-to-do."

Yes, the poor complained that the draft was unfair. Campus riots started after the deferments were dropped.

 

[dgiharris]

I think it wasn't the only reason. The invention of the contraceptive pill, for example, led to the sexual revolution and liberation that was a big part of the 60s.

Also, it's just no longer neccessary. The time where wars were decided by large amounts of relatively shortly trained troops wielding relatively weak equipment are over. Today, wars are won by drone operators, helicopter pilots, special forces and rocket engineers. In the not so far future, you can add artificial intelligences to that list.

A draft wouldn't supply anything modern armed forces need.

Not necessarily true.

War is a game of paper-rock-scissors and if a full scale war ever broke out between the US and China one of the first things in China's contingency plans to neutralize our formidable tech superiority and restore a level playing field is to set off a nuke in space thereby destroying GPS and SATCOM for at least 8 years.

BOOM.

No more Satellite Communications, no more drones, no more GPS... the calendar gets dialed back to the 1970s in a lot of cases...

This is also in Russia's playbook and there is a belief that Russian Satellites can survive an EMP that our satellites cannot. I confess to not knowing if that is or is not the case but I do know that Russia likewise has that "nuke space" contingency plan as well simply because it hurts us 3 times more than it hurts them and our Ops are way more dependent on SATCOM than theirs....

And if that happens, then bodies and the # of bodies a nation can throw into the War Machine becomes a huge factor again.

 

[RDKirk]

Not necessarily true.

War is a game of paper-rock-scissors and if a full scale war ever broke out between the US and China one of the first things in China's contingency plans to neutralize our formidable tech superiority and restore a level playing field is to set off a nuke in space thereby destroying GPS and SATCOM for at least 8 years.

BOOM.

No more Satellite Communications, no more drones, no more GPS... the calendar gets dialed back to the 1970s in a lot of cases...

This is also in Russia's playbook and there is a belief that Russian Satellites can survive an EMP that our satellites cannot. I confess to not knowing if that is or is not the case but I do know that Russia likewise has that "nuke space" contingency plan as well simply because it hurts us 3 times more than it hurts them and our Ops are way more dependent on SATCOM than theirs....

And if that happens, then bodies and the # of bodies a nation can throw into the War Machine becomes a huge factor again.

Don't think this hasn't been long known and that there isn't a contingency plan for military communications and activity.