
Why You Don't Know Anybody in the Military - smacktoward
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-20/why-you-don-t-know-anybody-in-the-military
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dforrestwilson
Vet here. So much of this rings true to me.

1) Back in 2006 I was single and in a college town wearing a USMC hoodie. I
was chatting up these girls at a bar and they asked me what college I was at.
I was totally miffed. Did they not know we were at war? Did what I was doing
matter at all? And then after an awkward pause, I made an excuse and left
their table. It was like we were different species living in different worlds.

2) I'm coming around to the notion that the draft could be a good thing
because it forces people to think really hard before attacking someone else
when your own butt is at risk.

I'm 34 and I've seen two of my friends buried already. I really hope they are
the last for awhile, but I _still_ have friends deploying to these pointless
wars in the Middle East today. Nobody cares enough to vote along those lines,
and so my friends will keep deploying, because hey it's a job and it pays
middle class income.

People shrug and say "they're volunteers" but if you look at their other
opportunities out of high school, it's more like a targeted draft of the poor.

