Trump avoiding the Draft

[Sunni Man]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

 

[Ernie S.]

You should have been born allergic to bee stings.

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

Coming from a Vietnam Vet, this means all the more. Thank you for your service and I agree that anyone who could have gotten out of it should have.

Draft dodgers and tax evaders.....patriots in my book!

 

[Pete7469]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

I appreciate your service, even if you don't value your own efforts.

Killing commies is a noble endeavor, and I have the highest respect for Vietnam Vets.

 

[Rotagilla]

Looks legit to me...millions of people probably sought and received student deferments...

 

[Vigilante]

"Dear Colonel Holmes,
I am sorry to be so long in writing. I know I promised to let you hear from me at least once a month, and from now on you will, but I have had to have some time to think about this first letter. Almost daily since my return to England I have thought about writing, about what I want to and ought to say. First, I want to thank you, not just for saving me from the draft, but for being so kind and decent to me last summer, when I was as low as I have ever been. One thing which made the bond we struck in good faith somewhat palatable to me was my high regard for you personally. In retrospect, it seems that the admiration might not have been mutual had you known a little more about me, about my political beliefs and activities. At least you might have thought me more fit for the draft than for ROTC. Let me try to explain.
As you know, I worked for two years in a very minor position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I did it for the experience and the salary, but also for the opportunity, however small, of working every day against a war I opposed and despised with a depth of feeling I had reserved solely for racism in America before Vietnam. I did not take the matter lightly, but studied it carefully, and there was a time when not many people had more information about Vietnam at hand than I did. I have written and spoken and marched against the war. One of the national organizers of the Vietnam Moratorium is a close friend of mine. After I left Arkansas last summer, I went to Washington to work in the national headquarters of the Moratorium, then to England to organize the Americans here for demonstrations here October 15th and November 16th.

Interlocked with the war is the draft issue, which I did not begin to consider separately until early 1968. For a law seminar at Georgetown I wrote a paper on the legal arguments for and against allowing, within the Selective Service System, the classification of selective conscientious objection, for those opposed to participation in a particular war, not simply to, quote, participation in war in any form, end quote. From my work I came to believe that the draft system itself is illegitimate. No government really rooted in limited, parliamentary democracy should have the power to make its citizens fight and kill and die in a war they may oppose, a war which even possibly may be wrong, a war which, in any case, does not involve immediately the peace and freedom of the nation.

The draft was justified in World War II because the life of the people collectively was at stake. Individuals had to fight if the nation was to survive, for the lives of their countrymen and their way of life. Vietnam is no such case. Nor was Korea, an example where, in my opinion, certain military action was justified but the draft was not, for the reasons stated above.
Because of my opposition to the draft and the war, I am in great sympathy with those who are not willing to fight, kill, and maybe die for their country, that is, the particular policy of a particular government, right or wrong. Two of my friends at Oxford are conscientious objectors. I wrote a letter of recommendation for one of them to his Mississippi draft board, a letter which I am more proud of than anything else I wrote at Oxford last year. One of my roommates is a draft resister who is possibly under indictment and may never be able to go home again. He is one of the bravest, best men I know. His country needs men like him more than they know. That he is considered a criminal is an obscenity.

The decision not to be a resister and the related subsequent decisions were the most difficult of my life. I decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason: to maintain my political viability within the system. For years I have worked to prepare myself for a political life characterized by both practical political ability and concern for rapid social progress. It is a life I still feel compelled to try to lead. I do not think our system of government is by definition corrupt, however dangerous and inadequate it has been in recent years (the society may be corrupt, but that is not the same thing, and if that is true we are all finished anyway).
When the draft came, despite political convictions, I was having a hard time facing the prospect of fighting a war I had been fighting against, and that is why I contacted you. ROTC was the one way left in which I could possibly, but not positively, avoid both Vietnam and resistance. Going on with my education, even coming back to England, played no part in my decision to join ROTC. I am back here, and would have been at Arkansas Law School, because there is nothing else I can do. In fact, I would like to have been able to take a year out perhaps to teach in a small college or work on some community action project and in the process to decide whether to attend law school or graduate school and how to be putting what I have learned to use. But the particulars of my personal life are not nearly as important to me as the principles involved.

After I signed the ROTC letter of intent I began to wonder whether the compromise I had made with myself was not more objectionable than the draft would have been, because I had no interest in the ROTC program in itself and all I seemed to have done was to protect myself from physical harm. Also, I began to think I had deceived you, not by lies - there were none - but by failing to tell you all the things I'm writing now. I doubt that I had the mental coherence to articulate them then. At that time, after we had made our agreement and you had sent my 1 - D deferment to my draft board, the anguish and loss of self-regard and self-confidence really set in. I hardly slept for weeks and kept going by eating compulsively and reading until exhaustion brought sleep. Finally on September 12th, I stayed up all night writing a letter to the chairman of my draft board, saying basically what is in the preceding paragraph, thanking him for trying to help me in a case where he really couldn't, and stating that I couldn't do the ROTC after all and would he please draft me as soon as possible.
I never mailed the letter, but I did carry it on me every day until I got on the plane to return to England. I didn't mail the letter because I didn't see, in the end, how my going in the Army and maybe going to Vietnam would achieve anything except a feeling that I had punished myself and gotten what I deserved. So I came back to England to try to make something of this second year of my Rhodes scholarship.
And that is where I am now, writing to you because you have been good to me and have a right to know what I think and feel. I am writing too in the hope that my telling this one story will help you to understand more clearly how so many fine people have come to find themselves still loving their country but loathing the military, to which you and other good men have devoted years, lifetimes, of the best service you could give. To many of us, it is no longer clear what is service and what is disservice, or if it is clear, the conclusion is likely to be illegal. Forgive the length of this letter. There was much to say. There is still a lot to be said, but it can wait. Please say hello to Colonel Jones for me. Merry Christmas.
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton"

 

[Sunni Man]

It just bugs me that every national election involves dragging up and rehashing the Vietnam war.

Candidate's are grilled over their participation or non participation in that conflict.

It was a different time and place in the nation's psyche......time to move on. .......

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

I appreciate your service, even if you don't value your own efforts.

Killing commies is a noble endeavor, and I have the highest respect for Vietnam Vets.

He killed commies and the result was the same, a communist Vietnam. And unlike him, 24,000 men didn't live through it to tell their own story. I don't blame him for cheering on anyone who avoided that shit hole and I probably would have felt the same if I wasn't born in 1975. Spilling American blood for gooks and sand nggrs who want to live under oppression is a bad idea in every era.

 

[pwjohn]

Not a concern for me

 

[Pete7469]

He killed commies and the result was the same, a communist Vietnam. And unlike him, 24,000 men didn't live through it to tell their own story. I don't blame him for cheering on anyone who avoided that shit hole and I probably would have felt the same if I wasn't born in 1975. Spilling American blood for gooks and sand nggrs who want to live under oppression is a bad idea in every era.

I appreciate your perspective, but I have my own opinions. We were very close to winning in 'Nam, but political whores sold out the men in the meat grinder.

The same with Iraq. We killed muzbot savages and as far as I'm concerned we should still be there acting as a "bug light" to attract these psychopaths in and zap them.

Now they're spreading around the world and there's no real effort being made to stop it.

 

[Rotagilla]

It just bugs me that every national election involves dragging up and rehashing the Vietnam war.

Candidate's are grilled over their participation or non participation in that conflict.

It was a different time and place in the nation's psyche......time to move on. .......

situational ethics..if he HAD served they'd try to call him a "baby killer" or an "imperialist"...

 

[whitehall]

Pretty insulting to lump National Guard members with "conscious objectors". How about guys like Hillary's husband who tricked the draft board into into believing he would join the Guard and lied to both?

 

[Sunni Man]

Pretty insulting to lump National Guard members with "conscious objectors". How about guys like Hillary's husband who tricked the draft board into into believing he would join the Guard and lied to both?

During that time it was very hard to get into the National Guard because the waiting list was soo long.

I seriously doubt the reason so many guys wanted to join the Guard was a national bout of patriotic fever. ......

 

[saintmichaeldefendthem]

He killed commies and the result was the same, a communist Vietnam. And unlike him, 24,000 men didn't live through it to tell their own story. I don't blame him for cheering on anyone who avoided that shit hole and I probably would have felt the same if I wasn't born in 1975. Spilling American blood for gooks and sand nggrs who want to live under oppression is a bad idea in every era.

I appreciate your perspective, but I have my own opinions. We were very close to winning in 'Nam, but political whores sold out the men in the meat grinder.

The same with Iraq. We killed muzbot savages and as far as I'm concerned we should still be there acting as a "bug light" to attract these psychopaths in and zap them.

Now they're spreading around the world and there's no real effort being made to stop it.

I don't want to waste any more precious American blood for Muslim countries who don't appreciate or fight for freedom. It's time to switch to MIRV diplomacy.

 

[aaronleland]

Kinda makes you wonder what Ted Nugent was thinking. He sat in his own shit for weeks when all he had to do was say he was gay. Maybe he's just not that bright.

 

[Harry Dresden]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

in 1970 my first year at Fullerton Collage the Vietnam Veterans Club who were 3-4 years older than kids my age were telling kids to stay in school you dont want to go over there this "war" is a fucked up war,and many would show their prosthetic legs or arms and would say you want this?...there was some poor blind guy who was all fucked up and had to be led around campus,he stepped on a mine or something...they scared lots of guys to stay in school ....

 

[Pogo]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

I appreciate your service, even if you don't value your own efforts.

Killing commies is a noble endeavor, and I have the highest respect for Vietnam Vets.

Killing NOBODY is a noble endeavor.

What a freaking moron.

 

[AmericanFirst1]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

Clinton dodged the draft and was elected.

 

[AmericanFirst1]

It's hard for me to fault Donald Trump for trying to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.

Everyone I knew at that time was hoping / trying not to get drafted and sent to some god forsaken place we couldn't find on a map.

Some of my friends went to college for a deferment. Other's joined the National guard as a way out.

Heck even Muhammad Ali used the conscious objector scam to avoid being drafted. And today he is the greatest international sports hero of all time.

I knew one straight guy who told them he was a homo so that they wouldn't take him into the Army.

Two brothers in my neighborhood avoided the draft using opposite approaches. One ate like a hog until he was soo overweight they wouldn't take him. And his brother started using diet pills and lost soo weight that he didn't meet the minimum weight requirements.

Like I say, I can't fault Trump for trying to avoid what eventually turned into a monumental disaster and a national disgrace.



As for me, I was hoping for a high lottery number to avoid being drafted. But my plan didn't work out.

My birthday date number drawn on the nationally televised lottery was #100.......so in April 1970.....I entered basic training at Ft Lewis, Washington and was part of the Green machine for the next 2 years. ......

I appreciate your service, even if you don't value your own efforts.

Killing commies is a noble endeavor, and I have the highest respect for Vietnam Vets.

Killing NOBODY is a noble endeavor.

What a freaking moron.

The morons are on the left.

 

[Sunni Man]

I was out partying with my friends the night before I was to be inducted into the Army at the court house in the morning.

Up walked my high school friend Rick and his group of pals. He was a couple of years older than me and was a star football player. He had been awarded an All American state player and had a giant trophy in our high school display case.

I greeted Rich, said long time no see, and asked him what's he been up to. He said that he recently was in Vietnam and was out celebrating his discharge from the Army that very day. I told Rich that I had to report to the Army induction center in the morning.

Now you got to remember that Rick in school was a straight arrow, flat top hair cut, letter jacket wearing, big time high school jock.

So Rick looks me in the eye, pulls out a marijuana joint, lights it, takes a big toke, exhales it, and says, "If I had it all over to do again, I'd go to Canada".

I knew my world was about to change big time. .......