patrick.net

I don't think the draft should be used in peace time. After World War I, the draft was discontinued and young men got to enjoy the 1920's and 1930's without that pall hanging over their heads. After World War II, the times were so dreary and music so boring the draft fit right into the scheme of things. I expect young men born around 1930 felt they were lucky to have missed the big one, then in 1950 here came Korea when they were turning 20. I doubt we would have been so eager to enter that fight if the draft hadn't provided the numbers. It only lasted three years but ended in an indecisive stalemate that killed almost 40,000 Americans and wounded nearly 100,000, as compared to 58,000 in the ten years of Vietnam, but members of the Silent Generation didn't bellyache and protest like the next generation. We never learned the lesson of Korea. The French warned us to stay out of Vietnam. Whenever someone rhapsodizes about The Great Society and its social engineering schemes, I like to remind them that the hubris that drove those schemes was the same that drove our involvement in Vietnam. It's no accident they happened simultaneously—it was even given a name: Guns and Butter. I don't think this country will ever be able to mount a draft again unless it's something so clear cut as World War II or something of that magnitude where our borders are in danger.

Many Californians are anti-America pro gay socialists. I wouldn’t be surprised.