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I remember my parents saying tha tduring "The War" (World War II), young men who had legitimae deferments like to work ing munitions factories would be shamed by people on the street for not being in uniform. I nevver heard the say taht about Frankin Roosevelt or Sir Winston Cuurchill, did you? I wonder why. And young men would eat enornous numbers of carrots in hopes of their vision being good enough for the Air Corps. Well tha does make some sense to me ine the aviators had it better than the man in the infantry. "Oh he looks so handsome in his uniform!"Harpies!
Another quote that got away: Somebbody posted something about imagine you avoided service and lived a long peaceful life; how would you feel in your old age having missed your moment to fight your country's enemy?" Uhhh.... OK, I guess.
World War II may have been an exception to the general rule tha tall wars are useless except to decide who will make out are fat cats at the top. In World Wr I, the Great War, the War to End All Wars, ws it coing to be the British Fat Cats or the German Fat Cats? But whichever one won, they got ther pound of flesh out of the vanquished: reparations from Germany. And that gave us Adolf Hitler. So Roosevelt and Churchill should hav etold the eople: we got you inot this mess, now tyou hve tohelp us get out of mess we made while we dine on fine china every nite becaue ourmet meals really do help us to make good decisions for your benefit, you need to believe that, for your good not ours. We are selfless in our service to you ("Yes, another glass of th Richebourg, please, Servant. You say your son hass to put up with two week old corpses in his trench because ther are not enoug people cto ollect the dead in a timely way? I'm very sorry to hear that, serevant. Yes and I'll have another helping of filet mignon, medium rare, too. Thank you.").
So just being a draft dodger in World War II may have been more ethically reprehensible than in most wars,even though the people who caued the war the leaders of the Allied powers who won tha twar, escaped the hangman's noose and passed it on to you.
I seem to have read that Albert Camus had tuberculois and Jean-Paul Sartre wrote for the French Resistence. OK. So I would volunteer to give my all to my country in a staff position in the Army War College, Fort Levenworth Kansas. Who should complain about that? But it seemed they wanted not my mind but my body and fortunately, ther wa not enough meat on my bbones to qualify (129 pounds and 6'1" tall).
I certainly should not have beeen desirable for MRE. At Yale you had to swim 100 yards then to graduate. I found if I suched in as much air as I could I could float on my back somewhat and I made it to 80 yards and the inspecor gve me the last 20. But I also had documentation: a letter from the psychiatrit for a major city's criminal court stating I would likel hae a mental breakdown if inducted. I had a low grade breakdown in civilizn life anyway.?p>
So that is my offer: to collaborate in a posituon where I could exercise my mine for my counry not be food waste. For anybody in any country you should be more valuable alive than dead for heir war effort, but don't count on them being rationally selfish about it. As I hav eread Aristotle said hen he left thens, albeit in a diffferent context, he wanted to prevent them from mai=king the same mo=itale twice.
There are more than enough men who like th locker room, the barber shop and the football pitch who will add one to the ciount without me. But I'd help write insoiiring propaganda for them if I had to serve.And I can understand how men the most exciting thing in their life is mowing alwan and wawtching NFL on the TV wouold welcome an oportunity to hav esome excietment in their lies, per: above.
