Draft dodging

bike756 · Tar Sands Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 20

Whats the best way to avoid the draft? How does the draft work anyway? Do they physically make you join the army? I am 16 now. I should be turning 18 right about the time the US decides to take over the middle east.

admhwd · Coal Joined: Apr 02, 2006 Posts: 1

Just stay away from army recruiters and don't go into debt and you will be okay.

Princess · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 25, 2005 Posts: 109

Start here. Try googling "draft resistance" and follow the links from there (when I googled it a few minutes ago, +18 million hits came up). Find your local Quaker meeting house and start going. Talk to them about your pacifist views. The earlier you do this, the easier it will be to get yourself labeled a conscientious objector, a label which is a good thing. If you don't mind not getting financial aid, among other things, don't register for selective service. I know there is a web page out there that talks about that. Probably on the first page or two of the previously mentioned "draft resistance" google. Educate yourself.

Oh, and don't call it draft DODGING. It's draft RESISTANCE. Resistance is NEVER futile!

Good luck!

Ludi · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

I agree with Princess. Join your local Society of Friends (Quaker) and go to meetings regularly.

http://www.objector.org/
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gg3 · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:31 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

Obviously if you're concerned about it at age 16, you're probably thinking that warfare in general violates a principle you hold that is either religious in nature or is equivalent to a religious principle in your life. That is the key qualification, by the way, for conscientious objector status.

Those who serve are honorable; those who don't because they are truly pacifists are honorable. But those who merely evade are dishonorable; after all, Five-Deferment Dick (Cheney) only made VP and could never get himself elected President.

gary_malcolm · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:00 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

emersonbiggins · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:22 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

Can you have your objector status revoked if the feds find an old Mortal Kombat cartridge lying around your house?

Confused

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Daculling · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 1361

TommyJefferson · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:53 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

TommyJefferson · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:01 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

gg3 · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:18 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

Gary, I'm surprised at you! You barely know me, and you're calling me a brainwashed monster. You could at least start by introducing yourself properly before taking your clothes off.

How'bout you tell all of us what, exactly, in my posting, makes me a brainwashed monster?

And I have another question for you. What happens to a society composed entirely of total pacifists, i.e. a society whose people won't even fight to save their own lives from direct armed attack?

Please be specific.

aflurry · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 28, 2005 Posts: 838

gg3 · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:31 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

I have to disagree with TJ's hyperbole about leaving the US.

You do not want to be in a country where you do not have citizenship, when the crap starts to slide. And even adopted citizenship is a vulnerability under certain conditions; look at the waves of anti-immigrant bigotry that occur in the US under normal conditions, and extrapolate to other countries during a generalized system crash.

Stay here, work your butt off for political change, take a principled stand, and at the same time don't make yourself a martyr.

One thing you can do to start is, find two of your friends who are of voting age but aren't registered, and get them registered. Then engage them in discussions about candidates and issues, and do your best to educate them. On election day, drive them to the polls and then take them out for a burger or whatever. Do this every year. In 2008 you'll be of voting age. Keep doing it. And if each of the people you reach, in turn registers two more voters every year, that will start to add up.

You have to operate on faith to a degree, that the civic action you're engaged in, is a microcosm of a larger trend. But this is a safe assumption; the causes that motivate you to act also motivate others to act similarly. Find them, find your strength, and find a place to make a difference.

TommyJefferson · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:55 am Post subject: Re: Draft dodging

Daculling · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 1361

They have operations now to change your gender.
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-Dac

Winners never quit and quiters never win, but those that never win and never quit are idiots.