In an era where the size of the military has fallen by half since the Berlin Wall fell, and by over 90% since V-J Day, what on earth sort of reason exists to keep this particular bureaucracy in business. Especially when they have this sort of thing on their web site:
The Iron Law of Bureaucracy tells you everything that you need to know to understand how this got on that web site. Shut 'em down. It's the Twenty First Century, for crying out loud.ATTENTION, UNDOCUMENTED MALES
& IMMIGRANT SERVICING GROUPS!Selective Service does not collect any information which would indicate whether or not you are undocumented. You want to protect yourself for future U.S. citizenship and other government benefits and programs by registering with Selective Service. Do it today.
12 comments:
Wow, thanks for reminding me. Next year I'll be old enough to register for my 3rd time. (And I need to remind my son to get his in. He just turned 18.)
Jimmy Carter strikes again! We need draft registration because the Soviets might invade Afghanistan. (Check the Wikipedia article on Selective Service if you don't remember.)
May, 1975, a high school buddy and I showed up at the SS office near our house to register. We were informed that we were too late, that registration had ended a month prior. Nevertheless, that office remained open for years, closing just before Carter reinstated registration at Post Offices. I've often wondered what they did in there, and what they were paid for it.
The sole purpose of SS is to remind you that the government owns you and they can collect any time they choose.
This isn't 1910 any more. You can't just give a bunch of guys rifles and uniforms and send them off to the trenches.
--Hale
Newrebel is right...
I was in the fist month the year they instituted it back in 1980.
I grew up watching the Viet Nam war on television every night, was 13 when Nixon ended it along with the Draft and thought I had managed to avoid the bastards.
Not so.
I'll note that despite feminisms constant agitation for "equality" that this is one case where they're glad to let men keep their "privilege ".
Also, if your war isn't popular enough that you can't fight it using all volunteers, may I suggest that you shouldn't be fighting it?
The draft is a dinosaur that has no place in modern America. How it can still be legal in these days post-slavery is beyond me.
I can offer my thoughts and observations to this bit.
Having been to Iraq twice and the subsequent Army service around that I can state that I like nearly all that serve today think its bad enough to deal with people that volunteered to serve that don't want to do it anymore, let alone be forced to deal with someone forced in.
Now I often wondered at how many of these yuppies, guppies, Generation X, Millennial or whatever that were or are spoiled rotten with no concept of what keeps them from having to serve would be like if they were told they had to do -something-. I think it would really open the eyes of a lot of these kids (I say that as my self being 32..) and perhaps make them cherish what made America great a whole lot more than what the Left is spewing.
Now as it stands I find the Draft totally unfair and unconstitutional since its been Decreed by the current administration that women now get to be fully vested in to combat first units. Seems a bit unfair that only men are compelled to serve now. I would support Selective Service more (Mind you I State more)
If first off both men and women are now forced in to it and any draft that may happen. Fair is fair right, why only send the Men off for what the women have fought so hard to get! Right?
Second off, I would be more likely to support it if the age that you have to sign up for it, 18 is the age that you can now smoke/drink/buy all firearms as you could at 21, that or you push back the age to 21 for all.
(Yes I know all the arguments about this age such as we fear we would lose too many enlistees if they got three more years of real life experience! I kid, I kid..)
My other bother with it is how many illegal aliens do they think are going to fill the card out anyway? Really?
Having been to Iraq twice
Thank you for your service!
that I can state that I like nearly all that serve today think it’s bad enough to deal with people that volunteered to serve that don't want to do it anymore, let alone be forced to deal with someone forced in.
So given a situation where I’m faced with two men: one man who has been enslaved against his will to go to the worst, most hellish places on Earth to be maimed and killed because of the whims of other people who have decided that he should go die for their cause, and the volunteer who is “forced” to “deal” with the enslaved cannon fodder, I’m supposed to feel sorry for the volunteer? I think you’re looking at this wrong. Just sayin’.
Now I often wondered at how many of these yuppies, guppies, Generation X, Millennial or whatever that were or are spoiled rotten with no concept of what keeps them from having to serve would be like if they were told they had to do -something-.
You underestimate us. All of us. I think you’d be shocked at how many of us would step up to defend you and everybody else in this country if we were needed, and were called upon to do so. (BTW, since I was born in 1980, I’m on the cusp of Gen X and millennial, since one ended in 1980 and the other started in 1980). If the time ever comes, this gen x’r/millennial will be standing right there with you, despite the insult. And I’d be damned good at it. The reason I didn’t go into the military was because I wasn’t needed, and right now the military is being used as pawns in the political process rather than true defenders of our country.
If you would care to argue, then why are there rules of engagement?
I think it would really open the eyes of a lot of these kids (I say that as my self being 32..) and perhaps make them cherish what made America great a whole lot more than what the Left is spewing.
No, I would do what it has always done to people that get drafted – it jades them, angers them, and turns them against the country that enslaved them against their will to go be slaughtered. To the extent that any draftees in our country’s history have been heroes and good citizens afterwards, it speaks to the quality of that individual, not the quality of the program that enslaved them.
BTW, you do realize that you’re a millennial, right?
Now as it stands I find the Draft totally unfair and unconstitutional
You had me at this point. None of your subsequent qualifications were necessary. The draft is wrong. Period. Full stop. It isn’t wrong BECAUSE X, it’s wrong simply because it’s wrong. If the war you want to fight is not popular enough that you can’t fight it with volunteers, then you shouldn’t be fighting it.
"So given a situation where I’m faced with two men: one man who has been enslaved against his will to go to the worst, most hellish places on Earth to be maimed and killed because of the whims of other people who have decided that he should go die for their cause, and the volunteer who is “forced” to “deal” with the enslaved cannon fodder, I’m supposed to feel sorry for the volunteer? I think you’re looking at this wrong. Just sayin’."
No you missed my point. Where was I looking for someone to feel sorry for anyone? It was an observation of my years in the Army that people that volunteered knowing full well what was going on suddenly deciding when they actually had to do what they were told refusing to do so because suddenly it all became for real. Those people were hard enough to deal with and they had at some point wanted to be there supposedly. I would not want to have to deal with people forced tooth and nail to be there. That was the point.
"You underestimate us. All of us. I think you’d be shocked at how many of us would step up to defend you and everybody else in this country if we were needed, and were called upon to do so. (BTW, since I was born in 1980, I’m on the cusp of Gen X and millennial, since one ended in 1980 and the other started in 1980). If the time ever comes, this gen x’r/millennial will be standing right there with you, despite the insult."
No, I think you were looking for an insult I suspect since you follow Borepatch and have an active blog of your own that you are not the type of Generation X, etc that I spoke of. Note how I said -"Spoiled brats"- I have no doubt that if it came to it you and many would serve but there is also a huge percentage that would not.
For Rules of Engagement I suspect thats the result of politics. They may be an offshoot of an attempt to not create more insurgents in hot areas. Largely they are getting people killed as there are already Rules of War that are followed. Generally speaking and for myself personally I don't agree with additional rules of engagement as it makes something already very difficult that much harder.
"No, I would do what it has always done to people that get drafted – it jades them, angers them, and turns them against the country that enslaved them against their will to go be slaughtered."
This really did not happen for most people drafted say in WW2 and you could argue that they were sent off to war fields of slaughter. Again I don't agree with conscripted service but it was an observation that by choice or force a lot of people do also come out with a different appreciation of what they have as a citizen. This could also be those that volunteer to teach in other countries or even build homes for habitat for humanity. That's the eye opening I spoke of of how well people have it, here in the First World.
"BTW, you do realize that you’re a millennial, right?" I'm trying to decide if this is snark or not. Of course I do.
"it’s wrong simply because it’s wrong. If the war you want to fight is not popular enough that you can’t fight it with volunteers, then you shouldn’t be fighting it. "
Not to nitpick but did you not just give your statement a qualification there about fighting a popular war with volunteers?
I do agree with you on that statement. As well as the other qualifications I gave. Yes, wrong is wrong as much as right is right but how do you explain that to someone? If someone asks me why I say no to the draft and I say it's wrong that does not really explain why I feel that way or explain the moral outlook I have. Yes it's wrong but I took the time to explain why I felt that way. That was all.
Now if I came off as insulting I'm sorry that it came off that way as it was not the intention to be so. Much of what I wrote was opinions based off first hand experience as well as how I feel about the present situation at hand.
Jester:
I'm a little touchy when it comes to "millenial bashing" is all.
I'm getting sick of it, especially when most of it is coming from the Boomer generation, which, to me, is the most shameful generation of the entire history of America to date.
They've voted to bankrupt our country over and over again, to spend their own pensions as if they were savings accounts, treat their homes like piggy banks, and now demand that they get their pensions, anyway, by forcing the next generations to pay for it all, all while voting for bigger government, less freedom, and more boots-on-the-neck as often as possible.
yet they want to beat US down and tell US that we're the ones with the problem because we don't live our lives as avariciously as they did, buying things we can't afford and using our homes like piggy banks instead of, well, HOMES, and so on and so forth, ad nauseum.
I'm tired enough of it that every time I see someone denigrating the millenials in any way at all that it gets my dander up.
You included. I honestly don't know how you could possibly have grown up in the same generation that i did (within one year of each other) and have such a negative view of the people that you grew up with, because the people that I grew up with are good, solid people, who've been handed a shitty economy from their parent's generations' avaricious and destructive behavior, and have worked to turn it around in their own way, and who've also fought two long foreign wars with little support and massive expectations, and done so valiantly.
Yeah, there's some spoiled brats out there, but such has been the case forever. There isn't anything going on here that is particular to the millenials.
Goober, I don't disagree with you about the spending that seems to be focused on the Boomers but we are getting in to the weeds from the original topic at this point.
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