THE ERA OF TRUMP

[Smitty-48]

I never make a fuss about Clinton not serving in Vietnam, I don't believe in conscription for anything short of war for national survival, so if you declined to serve in Vietnam, for whatever reason, it's none of my business and I have no beef about it, go in peace.

And Trump gets the pass, if Muhammed Ali gets a pass, everybody gets a pass, the Champ is still the Champ, Trump is still the CInC, Vietnam or no Vietnam.

[tue4t]

I never make a fuss about Clinton not serving in Vietnam, I don't believe in conscription for anything short of war for national survival, so if you declined to serve in Vietnam, for whatever reason, it's none of my business and I have no beef about it, go in peace.

What do you think of the idea that if people have to be conscripted to fight when it comes down to national survival, maybe the ideas on which that nation is founded aren't fit to survive? Or is it a free rider problem that becomes unbearable at a certain stage?

[DBTrek]

We can always throw the people into the arms of the invaders, I guess.
Maybe it's the people, not the nation, that aren't fit to survive.


(Wooden shoes up the stairs, silk shoes down, all that. A bunch of silk-shoed beneficiaries of generations gone by feel that they don't owe anyone anything, let them talk to the invading wooden-shoes about that)

[Smitty-48]

I never make a fuss about Clinton not serving in Vietnam, I don't believe in conscription for anything short of war for national survival, so if you declined to serve in Vietnam, for whatever reason, it's none of my business and I have no beef about it, go in peace.

What do you think of the idea that if people have to be conscripted to fight when it comes down to national survival, maybe the ideas on which that nation is founded aren't fit to survive?

Yeah, well, that's what Adolf Hitler said, but I don't subscribe to that, every nation of peoples forced to flee in the face of overwhelming odds, was not fit to survive? Ah, no, not where I come from at least.

Having your nation tightly sprung for war at all times is not even healthy for your nation in my opinion, I don't want to live in a nation like that, I have no desire to live in a nation of only warriors.

I put myself forward for military service, but the whole point was; so others would not have to, and so they could be engaged in more productive activities, so when I was finally cashiered out, I would have a nice and prosperous country to live in after.

[tue4t]

I never make a fuss about Clinton not serving in Vietnam, I don't believe in conscription for anything short of war for national survival, so if you declined to serve in Vietnam, for whatever reason, it's none of my business and I have no beef about it, go in peace.

What do you think of the idea that if people have to be conscripted to fight when it comes down to national survival, maybe the ideas on which that nation is founded aren't fit to survive?

Yeah, well, that's what Adolf Hitler said, but I don't subscribe to that, every nation of peoples forced to flee in the face of overwhelming odds, was not fit to survive? Ah, no, not where I come from at least.

Having your nation tightly sprung for war at all times is not even healthy for your nation in my opinion, I don't want to live in a nation like that, I have no desire to live in a nation of only warriors.

I put myself forward for military service, but the whole point was; so others would not have to, and so they could be engaged in more productive activities, so when I was finally cashiered out, I would have a nice and prosperous country to live in after.

Oh I don't mean in the sense of forced to flee. I mean like if no-one wants to die on that hill for the values of that nation. e.g. People fleeing syria instead of fighting for Assad. Or on the other hand I can certainly see Americans dying on that hill for freedom and whatnot (not that they would ever be in that situation with their overwhelming military anyway).

[Smitty-48]

Oh I don't mean in the sense of forced to flee. I mean like if no-one wants to die on that hill for the values of that nation. e.g. I can certainly see Americans dying on that hill (not that they would ever be in that situation with their overwhelming military anyway).

Well, in Canada we say "conscription if necessary but not necessarily conscription", we've only done it twice, right at the end of both World War One and again in World War Two, we made it most of the way through on volunteers alone, but in the final year of both wars, we were running out of replacements, but if somebody at the time didn't want to go to the meatgrinder at the front, for whatever reason, didn't want to be killed, didn't want to kill, a bit of both, I don't blame them, when I was young, I would have been gung-ho for it, but at my age now, you'd probably have to drag me kicking and screaming too.

Bear in mind, I served half my life in the Canadian military, so I know what a clusterfuck it is, so wouldn't be eager now, with what I know, to run out and volunteer to be under their command again, I'm willing to kill, I'm even willing to die, it's the backstabbing whistlehead chickenshit that I can't stand anymore, to put up with the fuckin' Ruperts in the chain of command again, you're gonna have to draft me at this point.

I wouldn't dodge the draft, I would report, but I wouldn't run down there to be first in line, to die for Justin fuckin' Trudeau n' Co, bet dat.

[ssu]

Conscription works when you face a threat that everybody understands to exist.

[DBTrek]

America wasn't structured to have a permanent Army.
We were going to have an Army as needed, and militias in between.
Hard to pull that model off without some form of conscription.


. . . which is why we *actually* have a permanent army, I reckon.

[Smitty-48]

The Canadian government is so corrupt and incompetent at this point, I think the better option would be to just let it fall, and then switch over to guerilla warfare, I swear no fealty to the government, and I could serve Her Majesty still, without having to run the operation through Ottawa, my chain of command at this point, goes from my desk here, straight to Buckingham Palace, no need for Justin Trudeau n' Co betwixt me and the CinC, they would actually just be dead weight in the event of war for national survival, Brock and Tecumseh, they sure ain't.

Step one in the true defence of Canada, disband the defence department run military, start over from scratch, I'd just recruit and train my own unit, without even bothering to ask permission.

[ssu]

America wasn't structured to have a permanent Army.
We were going to have an Army as needed, and militias in between.
Hard to pull that model off without some form of conscription.


. . . which is why we *actually* have a permanent army, I reckon.

The structure depends more on geopolitics and military balance than ideology. Your biggest defence have been the two big wet ones: The Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. And also that neither Canada, Mexico or any other nation on your Continent has been some badass militant Germany.

70 million militant Canucks organized as the Third Reich would be a different thing, you know. Then you would have conscription.