giving blood

Rejecting the Draft - New York Times: Here is a thoughtful piece on reinstituting the draft. The one thing left out is the discussion of how many young people may have already rendered themselves unfit for military service, and what will constitute the new 4-F classification. For instance, when you go to give blood, and read the things that exclude people from participating in this common community exercise, you realize that the young people of today have far more ability to marginalize themselves than we ever did. Many already have. What will the criteria be for the new 4-F, and how many of our population are already in that classification?

"...Representative Charles Rangel of New York plans to reintroduce his annual measure aimed at resurrecting the draft when the Democrats take control of the House in January. We don’t favor military conscription in general. And in this particular case, compelling military service won’t achieve the things Mr. Rangel says he wants, either.
Mr. Rangel wants to replenish an Army that is in critical condition, make the armed services more equitably representative of American society as a whole, and find a way to prevent future presidents from embarking on military misadventures. Those are laudable goals, but not ones the nation can achieve by bringing back the draft."