Thank you for sharing your fear of a possible draft! I shared in it. My male American exchange student friends and I discussed this possibility in our meeting place, a bar in our host city Liege, Belgium. We were afraid that even an ocean away from the US government we might be drafted.
We were an ocean closer to the conflict than our hometown friends. Would that play in our favor or not? My American exchange friends and I fantasized about dodging the draft by staying with friends or acquaintances in Germany or France. About getting "stuck" in Europe.
My exchange counselor expressed his fears with me by encouraging me to "take a different way home every day" since our city "had a large population of ethnic Arabs." Rumors circulated connecting crimes with "those Arabs" in "our city." They were decidedly characterized as the bad guys.
But fear turned to questions for me upon discovering graffiti that the US was using "blood for oil." Were we? Is that the real reason for the war? I had thought the US was unfailingly righteous. With perspective from an ocean away I wondered if it was possible that my country could have corrupt and/or manipulative intentions.
Thank you for sharing your fear of a possible draft! I shared in it. My male American exchange student friends and I discussed this possibility in our meeting place, a bar in our host city Liege, Belgium. We were afraid that even an ocean away from the US government we might be drafted.
[posted prematurely, continuing the thought here]
We were an ocean closer to the conflict than our hometown friends. Would that play in our favor or not? My American exchange friends and I fantasized about dodging the draft by staying with friends or acquaintances in Germany or France. About getting "stuck" in Europe.
My exchange counselor expressed his fears with me by encouraging me to "take a different way home every day" since our city "had a large population of ethnic Arabs." Rumors circulated connecting crimes with "those Arabs" in "our city." They were decidedly characterized as the bad guys.
But fear turned to questions for me upon discovering graffiti that the US was using "blood for oil." Were we? Is that the real reason for the war? I had thought the US was unfailingly righteous. With perspective from an ocean away I wondered if it was possible that my country could have corrupt and/or manipulative intentions.