Should I say the word draft?

  • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Abraham Lincoln in his Lyceum address said:

    “Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

    We don’t have troops in any of the places you mentioned, and don’t need a draft even if we did. But we could unbalance and have unbalanced our own country by intervening in conflicts where it doesn’t make sense to get involved. (And sadly have chosen the wrong side in some cases)