re: #102 Targetpractice

Quick back of the envelope math says you’d need to be 69 years old today to have been old enough to be eligible for the draft when it was abolished in ‘73. And to be 18 in ‘73, you had to have been born no later than 1955. So for a good 1/2 to 3/4 of the US population, compulsory service is something you heard about growing up. And you heard about it in the context of the Vietnam War, one of the most divisive conflicts of the last century. Any supposed “benefits” from it are pretty much lost in all the nasty shift that happened as a result of the government having the confidence of a ready pool of manpower they could just toss into the meat grinder at will.

I’m exactly that person. I turned 18 in 73. The draft had ended but there was still a requirement to register, which I didn’t do. Should this ever come to fruition, it will be the one thing that I, as a boomer, would find some common ground with Gen X,Y,Zers in our adamant opposition. Their music may suck but that isn’t grounds for letting them be drafted.