August 30, 2006: Conscription

I was of a conscription age, when the first Gulf war was declared. The news of the '€˜action'€™ broke while I was on holiday up the coast with some mates from High School.

The first thing that leaped into our twenty something male minds, was that there might be the possibility of a general 'call-up'.€™ Just like for Vietnam.

We might be rounded up and sent off to die.

All those young men, full of aggressive energy, who were not very worldly. Who think that going to war is like attending a sporting fixture.

Not quiet like in the Second World War, where we would be off to defend our home lands.

We would be the aggressors, invading someone else'€™s home, to secure oil supplies.

My dad narrowly avoid being sent off to Korea, cause his back was covered in teenage acne.

When G.W. jnr€™ embarked upon this current adventure, I realised I was probably too old to be pressed into the armed forces now, which was a cheery thought.

Unfortunately, I now get to worry about what might happen in my nephew'€™s futures.

I think it'€™s interesting that in the News, there was a story about the Marines having an Involuntary Call-Up.

One wonders if this is the thin edge of the wedge?

Fear is a beautiful thing.

When I was a kid, the threat of the northern hemisphere ‘nuking it out’ was ever present.

I was never really worried about my home copping a direct hit, cause despite the huge over capacity of warheads safely tucked away in their launch tubes, who the hell is going to waste a couple of million bucks (or roubles) sending an ICBM our way?

Nope, what scared me, was having to live the rest of my life on the cinder, which would be all that was left of the planet. I kind of wished that we were a little more important, or at least a bit more threatening, so that we rated the instantaneous oblivion of ‘ground zero.’

There was this weird vacuum that appeared in the group unconsciousness when the USSR split. It was as though this threat, which had been hanging over my head whole short life up to that point, had evaporated.

Thankfully the threat of terrorism has nicely filled that vacuum.