Writes Andrew Main: “In my last year of high school (1960-61) in Santa Barbara, California, one day our physical education class took a break from the usual sadistic pushups-on-fingertips etc. program mandated by our (drill) instructor, to attend a presentation by several military recruiters. Of course attendance was required, which seemed to me wrong somehow.

“Intimidated intellectual proto-nerd type though I was, I somehow managed to summon up enough whatever to ask a simple question: ‘What is the suicide rate in the Navy?’ I was at least half-serious, as it seemed to me, with the draft looming, that were I inducted I might very well find myself with no other option, given the horror stories I’d heard about military training.

“My question caused a huge uproar, resulting in my being ’suspended’ from the PE class, which would have prevented my high school graduation, as PE was sacrosanct in those days — you had to have the requisite hours, or you wouldn’t graduate. I had to kiss a lot of a** to get back in and graduate with my class.

“As it turned out, after voting for the ‘peace’ candidate Johnson in 1964, I was summoned to ’serve’, and fled to Canada in 1967. Given that the United States has not been under any real threat from another country since 1812 (and I have my doubts about that one), I’m honestly astonished that even without conscription they can get so many to ’serve’ (serve what?) in Iraq. I’m sorry that so many now seem to feel forced to make such a sad choice (a choice the million-plus Iraqis they’ve slaughtered never had), but why didn’t they think about it before volunteering?”