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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   19306 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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To be a devil's advocate (I don't morally agree with Gonzales' acquittal), we have the draft because it matters quite a lot to the continued existence of our country. Some kids dying in mass shootings is tragic, but rare, even when compared to other gun deaths, and it's not a threat to the nation as a whole. An invasion from a foreign power has much more serious consequences.

Now I'm just saying that's the platonic ideal of the draft. Whether in practice the military actually wages wars that are necessary for the survival of the US, that's an entirely different matter.

Whether in practice the military actually wages wars that are necessary for the survival of the US, that's an entirely different matter.

Of course, in fairness it must be said that we do not in practice have a draft either. Theoretically we do, but the last time soldiers were drafted was what, Vietnam? Long enough that many men in the US today will never have been at risk of conscription, even if they did have to register with the selective service.

Eh, there’s certainly a case that many of the soldiers in the GWOT did not want to join even if there wasn’t a formal draft.

I'm not sure what you mean, but on the face of it I'm extremely skeptical that we should care. If they were not forced, then they are responsible for their decision to join even if they later came to regret it. But perhaps there is some context here I'm missing.

The only war that was existential for the US that I can think of is the Civil War.

The revolutionary war, a good chunk of the Indian wars, and the pacific theater of WWII surely qualify.

the pacific theater of WWII

I am not an expert, but I am dubious. I mean, it certainly was existential for the US territory of Hawaii, but losing control of Hawaii (or even Alaska) would not have placed the US in an existential crisis. Did imperial Japan really have the manpower to take even California, never mind fight their way towards the East Coast at the end of a very precarious logistics trail?

The war of 1812 felt existential at the time (once it became clear to the Americans that the British would actually fight back - something Madison had assumed they wouldn't), even if modern historians with access to British archives think it wasn't.

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