No military draft for students to fear (letter to Boston Globe)

Boston Globe ^ | 11/10/05 | Sean O'Connor

[raccoonradio]

I READ with wry amusement the article from a college senior deploring the apathetic state of protest from the current college generation (''Antiwar activists, where are you?" op ed, Nov. 7). Writer Victoria Bonney seems surprised that there are not massive, Vietnam-style antiwar protests against the conflict in Iraq.

Obviously she does not understand what was the primary motivator that fueled these protests among college students of the 1960s and early 1970s -- the prospect of being drafted and ending up in Vietnam. So you can cloak the Vietnam protest in noble- sounding rhetoric, but at the heart it was a matter of self-interest to avoid being drafted. Contrast with the current state of affairs with an all-volunteer military with no fear of a draft for college students disinclined to serve their country.

[raccoonradio]

>>what was the primary motivator that fueled these protests among college students of the 1960s and early 1970s -- the prospect of being drafted

"I don't wanna get drafted, I don't wanna go I don't wanna get drafted, no no no Wars are really ugly they're dirty and they're cold I don't want somebody to shoot me in the fox hole, fox hole"--Frank Zappa

The original op-ed by the college student:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1517458/posts

[martin_fierro]

So you can cloak the Vietnam protest in noble- sounding rhetoric, but at the heart it was a matter of self-interest to avoid being drafted.

That, and hippie chix were easy.

[Semper Vigilantis]

That, and hippie chix were easy.

I take it the chix are the ones wearing shirts?