• Neato@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s not really how we fight anymore. Buuuut if you want to see protests to rival the 70s, try doing a general draft again.

    The US Military will never do another draft. The issue with the draft is that it instantly galvanizes opinions of every single American. Right now with a volunteer army, most Americans don’t have an immediate family member that’s deployed abroad. But if you institute the draft, they will.

    Everyone will have a brother, husband, son, father, uncle, cousin, nephew, etc that has been drafted. And there’s really nothing like a close personal connection to drive people to be upset and show it publicly. An unpopular war would become an impossible war very fast with the near-instantaneous speed of communication the internet allows. It would allow angry people to organize in very large groups very fast. The protests would be massive and unending.

    • TheChurn@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Towards the end, drafted troops would refuse to go on patrol, attack their officers with grenades (nearly 500 were killed this way during the war), and refuse deployment while still in the US. 50,000 troops deserted.

      The lesson the military learned from Vietnam is that drafts are counterproductive. The civilian protests helped set the tenor in Washington, but it was the collapse of morale within the military itself that ended the war.

    • flipht@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      There’s a great documentary covering the protests from within the military called “Sir, No! Sir”

    • Night@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      Hypothetically speaking, what in your opinion would be the odds nowadays for those who oppose the draft and those who comply with the pro-war narrative?

      How much would such a situation escalate domestically?

  • datendefekt@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    What does a rotary engine sound like? A Mazda, that’s what. Ugh, that triggered me more than it should.

    • lte678@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I’m a little confused, aren’t they just referring to aircraft rotary engines with the cylinders arranged radially? Or what’s the triggering part?

      • datendefekt@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Rotary engines are wankel engines, which are only used by Mazda in their cars. If the cylinders are arranged radially it’s called a radial engine. IIRC, one of the very few helicopters to have a radial motor was the Sikorsky S-58, which saw action in the Vietnam War. But generally pretty much all helicopters have turbines.

        • lte678@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Yup, I know, it doesnt check out at all, you wouldn’t put a rotary on a helicoptor. But “rotary” engines were indeed used on aircraft, since they also refer to a radial cylinder configuration where the engine housing moves and the axis is fixed. So I think it’s likely they were referring to the common WWI plane engine. I didnt think of a wankel at all till you mentioned it! Interestingly enough, modern wankel engines are also sold for helicopters.