Anonymous #1 12h

Not an excuse. Their choice was go to jail or commit war crimes overseas. If I ever get that draft letter in the mail, I’m going to prison.

1

Anonymous #2 12h

I mean the choices are: A. Get drafted randomly to fight and potentially die thousands of miles from home in a war you may or may not even agree with, and if you make it back home, life goes on as usual B. Refuse, get a felony conviction on your record, permanently impact your employment opportunities, you + your family get steep fines, etc. I already know what choice you’d supposedly take, but I’d ask if you even think this is a fair question to judge what was often poor young men or boys for

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Anonymous #1 12h

their answer on? It also gets more complicated when you consider wealthier families were often able to enroll their kids in college/grad school or get a doctor to give them a medical exemption to defer the draft. It’s easy to say what the right thing to do was in retrospect, but I can’t say I don’t understand why people put in a terribly shitty situation would choose what they think is the less shitty option for them and their family

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Anonymous #1 12h

Yes, I 100% expect anyone that gets drafted to immediately shred that draft paper. ‘Just following orders’ has never been a valid excuse.

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Anonymous #2 11h

I personally just find that a bit privileged to say. You can’t understand at all why an 18-year old, poorly educated boy from some desperate family would not choose the option that involves a federal felony conviction that will make it impossible for him to work, 5 years of prison, social ostracization of his family, fine of like $100k in today’s money, etc.? At all? I’m not saying you have to agree with it but I have empathy for the fact that they got screwed by the warhawks in charge

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Anonymous #2 9h

We also have the benefit of hindsight and detailed reporting to look back on these conflicts with; at the time these people were drafted imagine about what they actually knew about the conflict, it probably wasn’t much at all. I think they get some grace for making a bad decision in a shitty situation

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Anonymous #1 7h

I’m also poor and I’ve never even considered the military. I’d rather be homeless. The Nazis tried using this same excuse during the Nuremberg Trials and it was rejected.

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Anonymous #2 6h

You are not being forced to choose between your entire life being ruined and joining the military so the comparison is kinda pointless. And I think describing what the average American drafted to the military in Korea or Vietnam did as on par with the Nazis is something of an exaggeration

1