On Oct 4, 2009, at 3:29 PM, Joseph Catron wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
>> (Incidentally,leftists must oppose the draft but with fingers
>> crossed: only an army ofconscripts, a fully egalitarian army, will
>> come over to our side.
> I, for one, am enthusiastically and vocally in favor of a draft.
> And while I suspect this is a minority position on the left, I know
> of enough others who share it to be sure that it's not entirely
> heretical.
Not entirely heretical, but entirely abstract. No way in hell will any capitalist US government pay the cost of training and maintaining some 3 million youth each and every year for no military purpose whatsoever. A socialist government would indeed find lots of socially and economically productive activities for a big disciplined youthful labor force. Until then talk of conscription is pointless.
Shane Mage
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos