A) What this guy doesn't know about the Vietnam War draft would fill quite a few history books. The draft was "universal"? Yeah, except for kids who could afford college (back when state college was so cheap even my late mother-in-law could put all four children through college on what was basically a secretary's salary. Both of her sons served in Vietnam, one because he flunked out of college and got drafted. He redeemed himself; he's one of the smartest, and most successful, persons I know.) Most of the people in 'Nam were working class kids; anybody who could afford any kind of college education at all, was home in class, and a perishing few of them (less than 1%, I'd guess) were making all college students look like privileged protestors.
B) Maybe the problem with the "all volunteer" army isn't "late stage capitalism" (whatever the hell that is. We all think we're living at the "end" of something; it gives our lives false meaning. And it's usually just another lie we tell to make ourselves feel important.), but that we have a standing army at all. That's much more a problem of post WWII (does this idiot even know the Pentagon was designed to be a government archive, not a standing military HQ?).
C) And for the love of all that is holy, SHUT UP about this crap!
“Today, more than 300 million Americans lay claim to rights, liberties and security and that not a single one of them is obligated to protect and defend,” wrote Dennis Laich and Lawrence Wilkerson in the American Conservative. “Apparently, only 1 percent of the population feels that obligation. The 1 percent is bleeding and dying for the other 99 percent.”
Whose freedom is being defended by the troops and military armaments Trump has sent to the vicinity of Iran? If we didn't have troops there already (and why is that?), we wouldn't have anyone for Iran to "threaten", and we wouldn't need to defend our 'freedom' (to do what? Establish military bases wherever we please on the planet? Wasn't it a military base in Saudi Arabia that enraged Osama bin Laden to 9/11? Was that military base worth all that followed?).
No one "secured" my freedom, except the people who established this governmental system and kept it running to pass on to me to keep running. The Declaration doesn't say governments secure freedom for citizens through military might. The Constitution didn't establish an army first thing, so we could all keep on bein' free! The closest it comes is giving Congress power to raise money to raise "armies,"; well, that and the "militia" of the 2nd Amendment (freedumb enshrined, as we use that one now). ENOUGH WITH THIS SHIT! The freedoms we are obligated to protect and defend come from living in a democracy, where the people have the responsibility of self-governance (and how's that working out for ya?). This isn't some Heinleinian dystopia where citizens earn their privileges through military service. In this country, the military serves the citizenry, and "professional" soldiers should be anathema, not the reason we have a Constitution.
Damn, these people are stupid. Honor the military dead, and the civilian dead, and if you are inclined, say a prayer for the living. But don't make the military something they aren't. We all deserve better than that.
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