Well, I'll tell you what

Well, I'll tell you what I've been thinking about. I've said that I won't blog on politics before the election, but I think that this goes beyond partisanship. I've been thinking about a draft. I read this today, and it really got me thinking.
I really do believe that a draft is possible. I think we're dangerously overextended, and we unfortunately need to throw more troops into the mess of Iraq. What happens if North Korea or Iran does something bad? Do we need even more troops? Bingo, I think we do! Anyway, that's not what I was thinking about today, because in the right circumstances, a draft is going to happen under a Bush or a Kerry presidency.
What I was thinking about, actually, was the disastrous effect the war would have on my generation, and the one before and after mine. I was born in 1979, and that year is sort of right between two generations. I'm not Generation X, but I really don't like being lumped into Generation Y. The definitions of the generations alternately puts me in both. So anyway, my generation is going to be destroyed if there is a draft. If you look at those generations who had to deal with Vietnam (and in interest of full disclosure, my dad did not go, but only because the war ended before he would have been drafter. Anecdotally, he has said that his birthday was due to be drafted within weeks, if the war hadn't ended. Now would he have gone? I sure hope not.) there is a huge dissonance in the Vietnam generation. Look at Kerry v. Bush.
Here's what I see happening to my generation:

• Lotsa women are going to get pregnant. My friend C has pointed out that if the military was to draft women (and how could it not in this day and age?) there would be a sure-fire out for women. If you got pregnant, they probably wouldn't send you to war. It's just a guess, but....and then all these women have children they don't want. Or, they get the deferment and get abortions. And do it again the next time they need to.
• Lotsa gay men. Don't ask, don't tell. What if everyone starts telling? How would the Republicans, especially, deal with so many professed gay men? It's an interesting thought.
• Some sort of exodus. That's right, a whole generation of kids is going to pull up stakes and leave. I have to say, to protect S, I'd leave. I love this country, but not enough to send S to fight some rich, white fuck's war. (Whoops! That was partisan.) I've been told that this is a sadly un-American sentiment, but my mom told me once that when they invade our country, she'll pick up a machine gun if she has to. I'd do that too. But who invaded our country? Not the country that we'd be sending the troops to (at least, if a draft happens without the Iran/N. Korea dimension, and even then, I think that it is more likely that we'll go do some more preemptive shit.).
• People in jail. I'd rather have S in a jail than fighting a war. I would be a CO and I am almost 100% sure he would too.
• A very divided America. Not that it isn't now, but....it would only get worse.

Those thoughts have been rattling around all day, and it feels so good to get them out. I know I've broken my ban on political stuff, but I am afraid. You can scoff at it now, and tell me I'm delusional, but in three years when you have to figure out how to get your kids out of the draft, you'll get it. And can I say, for the record, that I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm disastrously, horribly wrong, and that we'll never, ever have to deal with a draft again.