http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/16058164.htm

"Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has long advocated a return to the draft, but his efforts drew little attention during the 12 years that Democrats were in the minority. Starting in January, however, he will be chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. ... He portrayed the draft, suspended since 1973, as a means of spreading military obligations more equitably."

However, the 13th amendment to the Constitution (of the USA) says that involuntary servitude shall not exist in the United States. So the question is this: Is the military draft unconstitutional, or does the Constitution not mean what it says?

It is a form of slavery, your being unwillingly forced to do something to which there is no legal claim for it, until you contract with them. If they should dare to send a little draft notice to me (offer of contract). I will remind them of this fact in the most direct manner possible and inform them that I do not wish to contract with them, and I will be signing the notice Without Prejudice or Under Protest.

They cant do any drafting until you are willing (until you unknowingly contract with them) thats how they manage to do drafting without being thrown out of office. Few people realize that things like draft notices and traffic tickets are offers of contract and you have the right to refuse them.

Back in the 1960s, if a drafted person didn't go, they put him in jail. That's why I went.

There is nothing wrong with going to jail if you know it is what is right~ no man can punish you so long as you know for a fact that what you are doing is just. I would be damned if I ever was subject to the draft when I cannot even legaly have a drink. Especially considering that the draft is unconstitutional. Seperate but equal is not equal, yet girls do not have to register for the draft? What kind of BS is that. Aside from the expressed words of the 13th amendment, which in all reality did not apply to anything other than traditional slavery at the time it was written.

Oh yeah and it turns out all of the governments threats are all just bluffs...The $250,000 fine and 5 years imprisonment are never enforced (in modern times).

I had a wife and kid to support at the time, so going to jail for a belief would have been irresponsible in another way. Besides, at that time I didn't understand that the draft law was unconstitutional. Everyone knew it was wrong, but nobody seemed to see the conflict with the 13th amendment. It was a weird time. Many actually did go to jail.

Ahh I had no idea about the family; that adds a whole new level. But family considered, is the possability of death any less catastrophic than temporary imprisonment? I mean in all reality if faced with the same situation, I honestly do not know what I would do~ My uncle was drafted to Vietnam, he went, and he will never be the same. He got his $50,000 ,or whatever it was, for an Agent Orange settlement, and a nice addiction to opiates--to me it just doesn't seem worth it. I just wish our government wasn't so fucked up in the first place, and didn't force its citizens to make such decisions.

That "temporaty imprisonment" worked out in practice to about 10 years among real criminals. That's ten years of life (in one's best years) that can never be given back. With about 280 thousand having served in Iraq now, and about 2,800 killed, a soldier's chance of death is about one percent, with a chance of being wounded about ten percent. I would say they're not paid enough.

When people realize the real costs of war, they'll stop doing it.

No amount anyone could ever pay me would compensate me for fighting for something I do not find just~ And holy shit as far as the cost of war is concerned, if we stopped the stupid war for one day, we could have rebuilt New Orleans...

In the first year of the Iraq war we spent as much as NASA spent from the day it was formed. We could have been to Mars by now if we had spent as much on space exploration as we have spent in Iraq. It will be a trillion dollars by the time we get out of there. Those Republicans sure are stupid!

Like I said--Rick for president

Like I said, I'd make a lousy President. I'd even make a lousy city councilman. Just elect somebody who knows what he's (or she's) doing.

I admire anyone with convictions. Now tell us the rest of the story. What happened after you went to jail?

BTW, I saw action in WW 2--Part of the Battle of the Atlantic.
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm...FTOKEN=32642678

While at university, I took officer training with the army and the navy. I enjoyed the experience.

Theyd never get me, I would use every last legal trick, twist and turn I know and that could literatly take years to use them all, I would probably contract with a 5 star general and bring him into court just to show them I meant buisness. Those bastards would never turn me into cannon foder.

Lindsay, you misread Rick, he went into the army to avoid going to jail. Alas this is why I learn contract law and common law, to save my own ass! lol

Were you on merchant vessels or warships defending the convoys?

Actually, I went into the US Air Force to avoid jail and the Army. I received a letter that said "Greetings. You are hereby ordered to report for induction in the armed forces of the United States of America" and was given a time and location to board a bus for Army basic training. At the time (1969), draftees in the Army were getting four months of training followed by 18 months of infantry duty in Vietnam. About 1 in 10 were getting killed in the process of bringing hatred and FUBAR to Vietnam, kind of like what we're doing in Iraq right now.

So I went to the Air Force recruiter who called up the Oakland Induction Center and lied to them: "your boy is already in the Air Force."