That quote comes from our biggest chickenhawk of all, Tom. I very much would like to hear Tom's answer.

My answer is that when I turned 18 in 1972, my number in the draft lottery was 76. That was a fairly low number, but the draft was winding down and it wasn't guaranteed I'd have been drafted, but it was a possibility. As it turned out, I didn't receive The Letter.

I might've been rejected based on vision and childhood asthma that cut into my stamina. Maybe not. I don't recall that I gave much thought to what I'd have done if I'd been drafted; it didn't seem real to me, I guess. I was opposed to the Vietnam War, and if Selective Service had forced the issue I'm sure my response would have been negative.

Shortly after I was given the number, my father, known to many as Atilla the Republican, had a quiet talk with me. Remember that by 1972 support for the Vietnam War was waning fast, but nevertheless I was a bit startled when my father informed me that he'd understand if I chose to head north to Canada. That was my first glimpse of the difference between political rhetoric and personal reality. For all his fiery RightWing rhetoric, when the chips were down my father was able to acknowledge that the Vietnam War was not worth his son's life.

In the 29 years that followed, the United States was not sufficiently threatened that I felt compelled to join the military, even when I was young enough to be accepted. Our wars were little strategic ones, or CIA business like the pursuit of Noriega in Panama, or the invasion of that little teacher's school in the Caribbean; a few peacekeeping actions; and the defense of third parties such as Kuwait. Optional wars, all of them.

After September 11, 2001, the pursuit of al Qaeda into Afghanistan seemed to me to be the first war in half a century in which the United States was absolutely and unequivocally in the right, and going to war in legitimate self-defense. I was 47 years old then, so the question of military service was moot. Nevertheless, if called, I'd have served. That was then, before I saw Bush shift from self-defense to adventurism and the settling of old scores. As threatened as the US is today, I still would have second thoughts about serving in the military, out of concern that US military adventures are making things worse and making us less secure in the world; and because Bush's invasion of Iraq has badly muddied the waters when it comes to the question of whether the US is in the right.