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Old 09-18-2021, 09:30 AM
GrumpyOldMan GrumpyOldMan is offline
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Originally Posted by jdulej View Post
You are correct, IMO. I should have added to my comment - not only do "they" come up with phony reasons to start a war, but "we" keep falling for the same BS over and over. We all get to act all patriotic while someone else fights and dies. I was somewhat surprised to find that only about 1% of Americans actually participate in the military. Maybe we need the draft again, but no deferments (none!) and kids are drafted in order of their parents adjusted gross income - high to low.
I am a fan of a SciFi author named Heinlein. He wrote a novel called Starship Troopers. In it, he proposed that there should be two levels of citizenship - "citizen" and "resident". Citizens have all rights and can vote. Residents get to live as second class citizens, can't vote, etc. In order to become a citizen you had to serve a tour in the military. In addition, carrying hand guns was mandatory - for citizens, and anyone could challenge anyone to a duel, refusing to accept the challenge would result in the loss of your citizenship status. (Of course accepting the duel usually resulted in one of the two losing it - LOL).

Anyway. It was interesting to read how he felt those laws would affect society. I dis agree with him, but he did propose it would lead to a much more polite society, since insulting someone could lead to a duel.