Tim O'Brien - On The Rainy River

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Tim O’Brien has some very interesting stories of war which I usually find to be quite boring. The story I chose to respond to is “On the Rainy River.” The reason I chose this story is because I feel if I was in the same situation as his, being drafted to a war that you see no reason for fighting in, I would have made the same decision to run. Although they don’t use the draft now-a-days, it is a scary thought. The fact that they could easily bring it back at any time and out of the blues draft as many people as they want is something I would find hard to cope with. I’ve never been too interested in enlisting in the army, air force, or marines. Not because I don’t want to protect our country, just because I feel there are so many greater things that I could accomplish in life other than killing people and putting myself at risk for being killed. I have a strong feeling though that if the United States were to try and bring back the draft it would not turn out well. There are so many people today opposed to going to war. There would most likely be multiple protests and possibly riots. Today’s society is a lot different than it was when Tim O’Brien was drafted to the war. I don’t think that people today would have to worry as much about embarrassment of opting out of a draft. I feel if Tim O’Brien was in the same predicament in today’s world, he would have made it to Canada and not worried as much about what people thought of him. However all in all I respect Tim O’Brien for the decision he made and feel that it was a brave decision that turn out to benefit him throughout his writings. 

I found this article on DRAFTING in today's world to be very interesting. Feel free to read if you'd like. :)