[DanL]

If they drafted me, I'd burn the notice and the hell with the consequences. Bush is a gun-weilding trigger-happy maniac, and this entire war is stupid. Take a look outside the U.S., outside of all the propaganda that the mainstream news feeds us every day. Popular opinion is against America now. We should abandon this outdated imperialist doctrine, take a look around, realize we're no longer immortal, and build better relations with other countries rather than continue to make more hatred. I'm telling you this: only bad will come out of this war. All great empires throughout history fell - I can't help wonder if like Rome, we're overextending our reach with this war, and I can't help wonder if this was is a precurser to our eventual decline.

As for actually fighting, I don't believe in shooting other people just because they're muslims or iraqis or whatever and so, obviously terrorists and evil in general. ( [/sarcasm] for those of you who didn't get it). I don't believe in "fighting to preserve freedom and the american way of life." The fact is, the "american way of life" is to just find someone else willing to throw his life away just so we can hold onto 19th century imperialistic beliefs and control the world's economy. The "american way of life" is to exploit others and be the richest there is - be it control global oil supplies, send South American children into sweatshops just so we can wear a cheap shiney pair of Nike's, or have our world banks promise third-world that coffee beans will cure their economic woes only to have them invest all their meager resources and labour into growing them, have the market price drop like all hell, and then say, "oops, I guess we were wrong about coffee. Now, I believe theres this large debt that you have to pay off. To hell with how you're going to do it, we want our money!" And yet, just four cups of Starbucks are so expensive than you can fill your gas tank for that price. Screw the global community, we want our money! THAT is what a draft would make you fight for. Take a look at what we have done to other countries, and it's no suprise that public opinion of the united states is so low outside our great, free borders.

I'm reminded of a bumper sticker I saw a month or two after 9/11.
"Proud to be a Bandwagon American since 9-11-01"

Someone once said something to the extent, "Kill 1 person, it's a tragedy. Kill a thousand people, it's a statistic." Dieing for your country doesn't make you a hero - it makes you a statistic. Don't get me wrong - I'm not an anarchist or anything like that. Good things do come out of this country, and that makes me appreciate it. What I'm trying to say is basically this:

If you want to prove your worth, prove it by creation, not destruction. Shooting someone does not make you a hero. Doing something for the better of society does. That is why I am involved in FIRST - I see a way to improve society with what I learn. You don't do that by picking up a gun and escalating already intense hatred.