Obama MUST Stop the War wrote:
The Right not to be drafted by the U.S. government and forced to commit genocide was the same struggle as the Civil Rights struggle. Dr Martin Luther King Jr called the Vietnam War "Simply Genocide". Muhammad Ali risked his life by refusing to be drafted into the army by the criminal LBJ regime. American Society made an about face in the 1960s because of the Hippies, Civil Rights, La Raza/UFW, etc.
Although currently there is no draft and the Vietnam war certainly led to the military reforming itself into a volunteer force, you are mistaken if you think that you have a right not to be drafted. Politicians occasionally threaten to sponsor bills to reinstate the draft (I seem to recall several Dems bringing this up to try to put Bush, etc in a bad light...just political theater in those cases, not a serious threat). But you can be assured that if the country needed you to go to war, the draft would come right back and as a citizen you do not have a right not to be drafted. My wife recently became a citizen and one of the things you must swear to is that you will defend the country in time of need or perform service in support of the nation (don't recall the exact wording but it is pretty clear that you are vowing to defend the nation). Obviously in time of need not everyone is going to be allowed to opt out of combat in favor of some other support role.
I may have come across as an ultra-conservative because of my position on abortion, but in fact I am extremely open minded and really do not fit into a category.
Where I strongly disagree with the Hippies and the whole ideology of that group of people is in their tremendous selfishness. Their logical approach to the world boils down to "If I don't want to do it nobody can make me" or "If I want to do it nobody can stop me". With some issues I could agree with this but they apply it to everything.
Abortions should not be legal just because a woman "doesn't feel like it" (I would accept a better argument if our legal system could present a logical reason why an unborn child should be sacrificed for a woman's convenience). In the case of medical danger or rape I have no problem with abortion.
People should not be able to skip out on war because they don't feel like it (more responsible people give their lives to defend our country and without them we would simply be overtaken by a more agressive adversary). I fully agree that nobody should be above going to war and that it should not be limited to the poor or those without connections. And I agree that we should be able to vocally disagree when our politicians take us into a stupid war. But the time will come when we have to defend ourselves in a necessary war and nobody should be exempt from their responsiblity to fight for the common good.
The Hippies did not believe in our country, only themselves. I am a strong believer in individualism but none of us exists without a land. Part of our responsibility to each other is to defend our land so we can enjoy our right to be individuals. I can understand why Vietnam was a raw deal but that doesn't mean the solution is to abandon each other and pursue only our narrow, selfish aims because once long ago our politicians did something stupid.