Everything After - A 9.11 Youth Circle

No way! I would never go in and fight "for the glories of America"! Ecchhh! I get born into a country I didn't ask to live in, and now I'm supposed to surender to it uncondiitionally because I was born here! This is punishment for being male, if I were born female I wouldn't have any problem. But instead, every male born in the United States whose the ripe age at the time is hunted down by the government to "protect your country". MY LIFE is more important than this fascist hellpit. This country has made me live in fear of my life with my drug habits, this country has refused to listen when I spoke, refused to change the laws, and now you want me THANKING you for itt by defending. *Bzzzzz* No way. I am not oging to war for this war or any other war.

I really didn't support going to war in the first place. As I've said many times, violence really ISN'T the way to solve violence. I don't have to worry about getting drafted because so far females don't get drafted. However, my brother will be 18 in September, my friend Dominic in June, my friend Darren in February. My friend Scott is joining the army the second he graduates in June, and several more of my friends will be 18 within less than 4 years. If this "war" goes on long enough, they could ALL get drafted. I'm not worried about myself, I'm worried about my friends and my family. Luckily most of my family members wouldn't be drafted, as the males are all either under 10 years older or older than 24 (the legal cut off for a draft is 18-24 years old), except for my brother and two of my cousins, who are 18 and 21. I'm scared to death that the draft is going to happen. I know for a fact that my brother wouldn't go. He'd rather serve time in jail instead of going. He'd do anything to get out of it, I know he would. He disagrees with a lot of the stuff that happens within our government, and with a lot of the stuff that our government does, as in, punishing innocent civilians for things their government did, even though they have NO SAY in their gov't. We've had this discussion several times, and out of the 12 of my guy friends who were participating in that conversation, only Scott, his brother Randy, and my friend Darren would be willing to go fight for their country. That means only 1/4 of our youth population who would be eligible to go would be willing to. I think that puts a vote toward another Vietnam War sentiment.

A draft is never going to happen for two reasons. 1) The American public doesn�t like to see a body count. (Which, I have to say, is pretty stupid. What the h*el are the armed forced for?) 2) Wars are not fought with divisions and armies anymore. They are fought with elite, well trained, small groups of men.
Personally, if there was a draft I would defend this country.
To slashal: If you don�t feel that this is your country, find one that is. Find one more receptive that hears you. And when you do, post the name of this country, this country that is not as much a fascist hellpit as the USA, which makes you feel comfortable with you drug habits. You don�t know the meaning of the words �fascist hellpit�.

It has become very clear to me right now that the direction chosen by the majority of my generation has been unpatriotic, even if not pacifistic. These kids are NOT rallying behind the president, rallying behind the flag. In Government class we talked about the government calls to "get behind" the president. All the students were talking about how moronically stupid the suggestion was, and there were very few dissenters. Our first and third period teachers hold a flag salute to begin class every day, and only five students in our first-period class and only TWO in our third-period class actually stand. We had kids railing against holding the flag salute ever since September 13, and many teachers who had planned to make the class pledge every day just gave up. They tried to hold a pep rally that involved a flag salute and "Star-spangled Banner", and, in fact, many of the students actually responded by turning their backs to the flag. The liberals are still liberal, the conservatives are still conservative. They talk about America and its government not having done anything for them, not being a free nation for teens, even having put some people they know and love in jail. As a matter of fact, I've heard news bytes of several cases of youth assaults on the police -- uninhibited rage against people getting arrested -- across the country; not everyone is worshipping the police just because of what the police at Ground Zero did. I know a student who is fighting to get social security disbanded, a student who is fighting gulag schools for teens, students who are fighting to free Mumia, students who are protesting globalism, students who protest for animal rights, students who are fighting to get the curfew abolished, students who protest the police. Some of these kids have been approached by older people (our parents' age) who ask them appalledly how they could be doing such a thing in this time of war and when we need unity, etc. The kids feel no shame doing it and describe these adults and cowardly, brainless and without morals (I agree). Why SHOULD an attack change the fact that the things America does are unfair and should not have to be tolerated?

Some have wondered whether it is in our generation's nature to behave like this and just fight for our country, but I don't see why. Five months after the attacks, no more of this year's seniors are planning on going into the military than the seniors the year before (last year the roster enumerated 4 who were headed onto a military career or stint after graduation). This generation has not heard its calling, it will not push military enrollment through the roof, and it looks like it's going to be more a generation reliving Vietnam (if a draft were to occur) with resistance, belief in freedom and an exciting pop culture and ideology than a clean-cut World War II generation with calls of "honor, duty and country!"

Well, maybe the Netherlands would help him out with his drug habits, wouldn't it? :)

It's interesting that people are talking about a draft even though the military experts themselves are saying they can't foresee one and that they really doubt this is going to be a draft war. Maybe people have Vietnam too much on their minds as the current American perception on what a war is about? Mix Vietnam with the Persian Gulf War and you have what baby boomers and younger Americans have come to expect from the new war. Personally, I have no problem defying the government and refusing to go to war if there's a draft (and that's a big if). I'm not going to be pretending like it's a "dishonorable" thing or anything.

I don't know whether this was any more declared than Vietnam (although I thought I read that they haven't used the Constitution to have Congress declare a war in a *long* time). Either way or not, I have my doubts that there's ever going to be a draft. I do see, however, that the age group that has a risk of being drafted if the war is of average length was talking about the horrific possibility of a draft nonetheless, as if they were afraid that they were going to be drafted. No more people per month have joined up for the military since September than before; these kids were NOT rallying behind the flag and president, NOT resolving to fight the war that has come upon the world. If the war did come to include a draft, I'd have no question where our generation would end up.

A few days ago when I was in the locker halls one of my friends was talking with a bunch of kids who happened to be nearby about figuring out how he'd dodge the draft and they were all talking about the logistics of escaping to Canada and other places and what if Canada's also in war and so on...and a couple of H.Y.s who were also in the room heard them and were clearly appalled and started telling them that it's your civic duty to fight in war and how COULD they turn their back on the country that gave them freedom, and so on. The kids talking about dodging the draft gave an angry retort and began talking back to them, unsilenced, and I joined in. The H.Y.s argued back some more without backing out or backing down. No one was afraid to say anything or thought they would be "austricized" when they spoke out...that's quite a difference from the way our parents feel about questioning the war or government.