Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!labrea!husc6!necntc!frog!john
From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods, Software)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Draft
Message-ID: <1978@frog.UUCP>
Date: 23 Dec 87 01:33:00 GMT
References: <1812@culdev1.UUCP> <1307@saturn.ucsc.edu> <8357@ism780c.UUCP>
Organization: Superfrog Heaven [ CRDS, Framingham MA ]
Lines: 43

In article <8357@ism780c.UUCP>, mikep@ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic)writes:
> I concede your point about how armies waste resources.  Not because
> I believe all of it, but because I lack the resources/motivation to
> look it up.

Just a quickie on wasting resources:  Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on November 9.
Yet as you all should know, the war officially ended at 11:11 AM November 11
(I don't know what timezone).  The generals deliberately delayed the end of
the fighting so that they could have a right good time signing the armistice
at such a historic moment.  Does anyone have a handy reference for how many
TENS OF THOUSANDS of people died during the interim?  Considering that the
end of the conflict was a foregone conclusion on all sides, does anyone DARE
argue that this wasn't a waste?  Did they have so little right to their own
lives that a good chuckle in the history books was more important?

> I think a good army is one of the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS that a nation have.

No economy, no scientific establishment, just a good army.  Lots of countries
agree with you there on that one.

> It all could very well come down to:  "Is two years of your
> life (that isn't thrown away, just loaned to the government) worth
> your freedom???"  

You never get those years back, it isn't a loan.  If you die because a
President wants to get re-elected by national fervor, you don't get the ones
after that, either.  
> 
> It's a question each of us has to decide on our own.
> -MikeP

This must have been a typo, for you've argued that the army needs bodies more
than people need freedom of choice.  Or perhaps you mean that we should all
decide to give up our freedom to decide anything else.

--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu

"Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity.  It
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation."
		-- Johnny Hart