User:Mirv/draft

''comments made by alteripse on the Reference Desk. Saving them here because they're insightful and not a little bit scary.''

Unfortunately, those of us of a certain age know exactly how a draft would be imposed in the next few years, because that is exactly what happened the last time an administration launched an unpopular war by lying to the American public about the need for it. Here are the steps:
 * 1) Convince the public that a war is necessary. Lie about weapons of mass destruction or an attack on a navy boat or how if we don't fight the communists/terrorists in Asia we will have to do it here. Too many people simply do not believe that a president will lie to us or that all the administration advisors couldn't be so wrong.
 * 2) The president should prepare the way by selecting advisors who are "with the program" and will only tell him optimistic things. He should ignore those with pessimistic news and encourage them to go elsewhere. Undermine their credibility. This worked as well in the late 60s as it does now.
 * 3) Accuse anyone who disagrees with your policy of either supporting or sympathizing with the communists/terrorists. Attack their patriotism and accuse them of "not supporting our troops." No politician can afford to be accused of not supporting our troops.
 * 4) Keep telling people victory is "almost there" and we need to "stay the course".
 * 5) Make sure your economic policies favor your rich supporters and make the military look like a good job prospect for lower class young men.
 * 6) As more of them get killed, and it looks more and more like a pointless "poor man's war" with the profit going to Dow Chemical or Halliburton, opposition in the population will begin to rise and fewer men will voluntarily join the army.
 * 7) Manpower needs will continue to climb while the supply of available volunteers begin to shrink. More and more people will point out how unfair it is that only sons of poor folks are over there.
 * 8) Now you have prepared the ground for a draft. Let the liberals in congress propose it as only the only fair way to meet military manpower needs, and convince people that there is no alternative to more soldiers, but that the war is "almost over" and we need to "stay the course" and finish it.
 * 9) To win over any reluctant congressmen who might actually have draft-age sons that they don't want to see drafted, make sure that they understand that political connections can be used to keep rich men's sons safely in the Texas National Guard or something equivalent, so they don't have to fear for their own children.
 * 10) Now you have all the ingredients for a draft: support for the war by Republican faithful and corporations that are making money, advocacy of a draft as the only fair solution by liberal congressmen who are afraid not to support the war, and neutralization of possible opposition for personal reasons by making a safety escape for their own families.
 * 11) When congress passes a new Selective Service Act it will involve some sort of lottery to make it fair. The one in 1969 followed exactly this path. In a long evening all of us in the college dorm listened on the radio as someone from the selective service bureau pulled one birthdate after another out of a big lottery ball, 365 times. The lower the number assigned to your birthdate, the more certain you would be drafted.