<p>I just thought of this. With today's day and age, I assume all males 18 and over have to register for the draft. Where is this done? Do we have to go somewhere for this or is it automatically submitted? Also--do college students also have to register for the draft? I'm gonna be honest in saying I would not like to enlist at all, but is it illegal to not sign up?</p>
<p>You will get a card in the mail a few days after you turn 18 to sign up. And yes, it is illegal not to sign up. I think they give you a year or so to do so. You also need to sign up if you want any financial aid from the government (FAFSA).</p>
<p>and if you want to vote ever you need to have registered</p>
<p>It doesnt matter there will probably never be a draft in US history ever again lol</p>
<p>Voting is overrated, but okay. (I know, I know, flame me now)</p>
<p>Getmetocollege,</p>
<p>Knock on wood. With China emerging and Russia seeming uneasy, I would not so highly doubt the chances of a draft.</p>
<p>or you could be a conscientious objector. Though you need proof that you have have long-standing beliefs.</p>
<p>Or you could go on a tour of the white house... then at a random time, bust out your registration card and a match and burn it right there!</p>
<p>Objecting to a draft is selfish and weak. I don't care if you're a quaker or a muslim or what not, but everyone else is putting their lifes on hold, and you should, too, if you want to enjoy American freedoms.</p>
<p>I feel bad, but thank goodness I have girls</p>
<p>The draft may come, it really might</p>
<p>Excuse me, but how is objecting to a war that you didn't start "selfish" and "weak"? Selfish is starting a war for your own purposes (ahem, oil) and making others fight it for you (ahem, George W. Bush). Weak doesn't really mean anything at all. If you didn't start a war and never wanted Bush to be in office in the first place, and he goes and starts a war, you shouldn't have to WANT a draft. Not wanting to be forced into joining the army for a war you don't believe in is neither selfish NOR weak. It is foolish. It is NOT standing up for what you believe in. NOT standing up for what you believe in is weak, and in fact blindly conforming just because "everyone else is putting their lifes on hold".</p>
<p>"I don't care if you're a quaker or a muslim or what not"
I never said I was, nor did the OP. You put those words in my mouth. Nice try though.</p>
<p>Also, Wharton, what you said about "American freedoms" is wrong as well. Freedom is just that: freedom. Bullying people into joining the army by making it technically illegal to conscientiously object is a VIOLATION of those american freedoms you value so much. Why don't you get your facts straight next time you judge someone for holding a belief different than your own. You wouldn't like like such a close-minded fool that way.</p>
<p>iwantwharton, are you enlisted? With such strong beliefs, I would hope someone like you would volunteer so people who do not believe in the war do not have to.</p>
<p>Also...I wonder if there will ever be a possibility for a female draft? I mean, it's equality isn't it?
<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/%7Edraftwatch/id14.html%5B/url%5D">http://home.earthlink.net/~draftwatch/id14.html</a></p>
<p>Edit: I could not even imagine shooting someone. I mean, jeez, I have trouble watching a bug get squashed or a dead animal on the side of the road. Even if I ever were drafted, I don't think I'd be a very good soldier due to that reason.</p>
<p>logistics- There are multiple ways to sign up. Post offices usually have the forms, and the government will mail you one. I filled mine out online. Yes, if you're a college student, you have to register. During the Vietnam era you could get out of it that way, but they changed the law because people claimed it discriminated against poor people who couldn't afford to go to college (e.g. a "poor man's war"). </p>
<p>YOU HAVE TO REGISTER FOR THE DRAFT IF YOU WANT FINANCIAL AID!!!</p>
<p>I disagree in that the reinstitution of the draft is likely. Wanting to reinstitute the draft would be political suicide, so I don't think that it will be brought back in a hurry.</p>
<p>I've always wondered why the draft wasn't unconsititutional due to the thirteenth amendment. I mean the whole concept of "involuntary servitude" clearly applies and if I'm ever drafted for a war I don't agree with (Hopefully, that would be the only reason I was drafted. If there was a war that I truly supported, hopefully I'd have the idealistic fortitude to enlist) I'm going to sue, sue, sue for infringement of rights.</p>
<p>Also, Iwantwharton, what happens when you view the war as having no basis in protecting american freedom? I mean, if there's a draft for the Iraq war (highly unlikely, I know), people wouldn't be fighting for american freedom at all, but for political reasons. Is it selfish or "weak" (<- the use of that word struck me as being a little to close to the schoolyard taunt, "what are you, chicken?") to refuse to fightin order to further political motives that you don't agree with?</p>
<p>I am a Libertarian. I am quasi-opposed to the Iraq war, although I did support the Afghanistan invasion.</p>
<p>The constitution does give the US federal government permission, both through clear interpretation and judicial precedent, to conduct a draft. And if you are a citizen of the United States, enjoying its protections and freedoms, you have an obligation to serve if called up barring injury, disease, or disability.</p>
<p>And whether you agree with the Iraq war or not, no one can deny that fighting there is fighting for your country. You are out there trying to defend fellow American soldiers, journalists, diplomats, etc. </p>
<p>Finally, a draft would not be reinstituted for invading smaller and weaker countries. It would only come, for instance, after a Chinese attack or Russian threat or something along those lines. </p>
<p>Trust me, no one is willing to stake their political futures on another Vietnam-like draft scenario.</p>
<p>But the 13th amendment was added after the rest of the constitution, to state the obvious. Does that not mean it overrules any previous part?</p>
<p>And fighting in Iraq is NOT fighting for this country. All those people wouldn't be there if there wasn't a friggin war in the first place. Thats some weird argument, we need to be there because we're there?</p>
<p>there won't be another draft and if there is so be it. I'd go.</p>
<p>and as the poster who asked about the girls, don't draft them.
just draft the ultra feminists ones, put them in the front lines, and give them that equality they've been running their mouths about.</p>
<p>
you are contradicting urself. russia is weaker (in every way imaginable) and china is smaller (the US has enough random islands in the pacific to easily be much bigger than china)</p>
<p>As a female, the prospect of a draft is nonapplicable to me (now, anyway) but nonetheless, I'm seconding (thirding, fourthing) iwantwharton's comments as absurd. I'm looking to serve humanity in ways other than pumping lead, thanks, and could be infinitely more useful in those areas (biomed research etc) than in combat.</p>
<p>And China's size is kind of irrelevent, considering that their population could totally smack us. War with China would suck but I think it's coming sooner than most people would care to consider, and in that case a draft would certainly be necessary to even THINK about facing them, especially with the US's (extremely) depleted manpower right now in Iraq. My current guess is that the current administration wouldn't think of drafting females if the time came (fundamentalist viewpoints would likely prevent that), but that would be dangerous - men are almost always better at combat, but women have the communication skills and retention to be more efficient officers. Just throwing that out there, randomly.</p>
<p>It's not just the current administration that'd have trouble drafting females... People have been conditioned to view men getting shot as demonstrating glory or bravery, but we still use the phrase "women and children" to mean "innocent." It'd be easier to get people worked up about drafted women dying in a war by showing graphic photographs or descriptions of treatment of prisoners than it would to do the same for men. ...the practical implications of infantilization :-/</p>