Who Will Get Chosen For Conscription?

Conscription in one form or another has been utilized by nations to fill the ranks of their armed forces since way back in history, and though highly controversial, is a practice that continues to this very day.

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Credit:
Simple History Creator: Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)
Video Directors: Lav Velimirovic, Ognjen Jovic
Script: Robert De Graaf
Script Review: Peter Turner
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Simple History Channel Manager: James Dowse

[robertstimmel]

Who won't get conscripted? The children of our honorable senators and congressmen

[oshhhtv]

"We are the unwilling, led by the unqualified, doing the unnecessary, for the ungrateful."

- Matthew Quick, The Reason You're Alive

[tomservo]

My Dad had a classmate (1965) that stayed in college for 8 years to avoid the draft. Even though my Dad was the only son of a farmer he was drafted less than a year out of high school. My grandpa needed him on the farm and they even talked to a county agent who bluntly stated "Do your time and get it over with" because a deferment was a nightmare of paperwork and the agent said that it would only get him 6 months of deferment and then he'd probably get drafted again. It really shows 'Rich man's war, poor man's fight'.

[dudepool]

If the fight comes home, sign me up.
If we're bullying another country, forget about it.

[theapkillypk]

If we get another draft, I ain't going. I'm not dying in a foreign country fighting a war that was engineered by people who hate me just so they can line their own pockets.

[Waterhead]

I'm disabled; vision, muscular and mentally. When I turned 18 and registered for Selective Service, my parents looked at me and said "The worst they could do is put you through basic and give you a desk job."

[TheMightyThor]

At work a while back, this woman I was working with was going on about how everyone should be drafted to serve in the military, both men and women. I asked her when did she serve. She told me she never did. I then asked her why she is willing to force other people to serve in the military if she herself never did. She got this enraged look on her face and walked off.

[ironrainx]

The same people who dodged the vietnam draft are now telling me to die for my country....

[wuebboltc]

I don't owe the state my death. Especially when they won't even help me afford a house or food.

[cquilty]

I did 20 years. I'm even past callback age for retirees. But Robert Heinlein said it well. "Conscription is slavery, and I don't think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at the price of slavery for anyone, no matter what name it is called." All you need do is ask military officers what they think of conscription. A vast majority do not want it. Unmotivated people are a liability in modern warfare. You lose a well-trained and skilled NCO to babysit those who would rather be anywhere else. Complete waste of resources.

[Zeppathy]

Am American. I would unsubscribe from life before I allowed myself to get drafted. I refuse to go fight for the useless rich scum, and cowardly politicians.

[HermitagePrepper]

They're already talking about conscription. Go and fight in a far off land for another nation's security...it is your duty...then come home and be cast aside and forgotten

[Redgunslife]

Conscription is just a codeword for "free labor", if you're not in an active conflict.

I'm not even kidding, nations who still practice mandatory conscription despite dragging their heels to get into a war, basically just use young men to work, in exchange for basically nothing. They earn less than enlisted servicemen, or their country's minimum wage.

Meanwhile you have America, who relies entirely on volunteers and paid contractors since the 1970s. And has the single most powerful military on the planet. So yeah, you country never needed to conscript you, they really just want free labor.

[Exhithronous-yn]

As a brit, I will ALWAYS choose prison or whatever it is over fighting for this country. I bid them luck.

[Malefactor]

I have more reason to fight against my own government than for it.

[theamateuriconoclast]

General Westmoreland: "I would not want to command an army of mercenaries."
Milton Friedman: "General, would you rather command an army of slaves?"
Westmoreland: "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves."
Friedman: "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general."

[hairyviking]

Never forget, the Korean war wasn't technically a war because Congress didn't declare war. The last time congress declared war was WW2.
If there's no war declaration from congress, there shouldn't be a draft.

[mitchgisborne]

Nothing you can say or do will make me fight for our garbage government. Aint gonna happen.

[carlospomares]

The fastest way to get rid of conscription is to get women eligible to be conscripted as well. The Draft will be abolished the very next day.

[guldi]

Fun fact Switzerland is like a picture book example of why conscription isn't the best idea. We have theoretically one of the biggest armies in Europe but in reality it's more like a summer camp for adults. Meanwhile we spend tons of money on paying those people instead of investing it in modern equipment. The result is a large army that is effectively useless.