The Draft

You make a good case, however, you used a scenario that involves invasion. As with my rules, which were clearly posted, you are not allowed to speak of invasion, as with that situation, I myself can understand the draft. This is the main part of your argument which is not allowed- "How many men, women, children, babies, Hebrews, disabled people and homosexual people would have died if Hitler was simply allowed to goosestep into my nation?" However, I ask that the voters ignore my opponents transgression so long as he dose not do it again. Now, onto my argument- There are several things wrong with the Conscientious Objector status- There are many reasons why some people won't seek "Conscientious Objector" (CO) status: Accepting CO status makes you part of the military system. The military gives COs special status inside the military to keep them away from ways of resisting that could actually stop the draft. By accepting CO status you acknowledge the government's right to draft you and judge your conscience. CO status isn't available equally to all of us. Poor people, blacks, Hispanics, and anyone who doesn't belong to a Christian peace church has a much harder time getting CO status than educated, wealthy, white Christian pacifists. Every time someone is deferred as a CO, someone else is drafted to fight in his place. (The Selective Service plans to send out 10 induction notices for every soldier they want.) Preparing your CO claim doesn't help prevent war. Protesting the draft while cooperating with it doesn't accomplish much. While I understand that in some scenarios, such as invasion or civil war, my point is specifically targeting foreign wars. A perfect example of a war where the draft was used was Vietnam. The Vietnam War was an unnecessary, costly, and deadly war. A lot of people still ended up going to war who didn't want to. Often, especially these days, there are wars against enemies that pose almost no threat to the home country. Vietnam wasn't going to invade the United States. There were around 58,000 deaths in the United States military. Another 75,000 were severely disabled. Read these two paragraphs from Wikipedia- "Rummel estimated that American forces committed around 5,500 democidal killings between 1960 and 1972, from a range of between 4,000 and 10,000. Estimates for the number of North Vietnamese civilian deaths resulting from US bombing range from 50,000-65,000. Although information is sparse, American bombing in Cambodia is estimated to have killed between 40,000 and 150,000 civilians and combatants. 18.2 million gallons of Agent Orange (Dioxin) was sprayed by the U.S. military over more than 10% of Southern Vietnam, as part of the U.S. herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. Vietnam's government claimed that 400,000 people were killed or maimed as a result of after effects, and that 500,000 children were born with birth defects." The point is, people were forced, sometimes into committing atrocities, and many haven't got over it yet. According to a recent LA times article, 11% of Vietnam Veterans still have PTSD. 1/3 of the people in Vietnam were drafted. One in three. Do you really think that those people deserved to be put through that, many with lasting effects? The draft is just wrong. http://www.hawaii.edu... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://tuoitrenews.vn...