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This topic has moved here: Subject: Why didn't they draft the civilians?
  • Subject: Why didn't they draft the civilians?
Subject: Why didn't they draft the civilians?

From my earlier post on the population of Earth before the invasion, it would seem that everyone could agree that the population was 20 billion humans. If you think about it, why didn't they draft those men and woman to save their race from extinction?

Every hand helps, and it could have even changed the tides of the war. A bullet is a bullet, kills either way, why not draft them so their army grew 10 fold? Sure they may be unexperienced and have no idea what is going on in the war as they have been filled with propaganda but that could use that as their advantage.

Telling them more propaganda saying the Covenant are easy foes to defeat and such. I don't know. It seemed like a bad idea on their part. They should have drafted as soon as Reach fell. There was a little bit of time, enough for a bit of training, why not?

[Edited on 04.24.2011 12:09 PM PDT]

  • 04.24.2011 12:09 PM PDT

People shouldn't be forced to fight, maybe the UNSC realised that.

By the time Reach fell it wasn't looking good for humanity anyway, more soldiers (that are inexperienced) would just create a higher death toll.

  • 04.24.2011 12:16 PM PDT

Eh, you'd get a lot of hate for doing that. And a lot of soldiers which would probably run at the sight of an Elite of Brute.

  • 04.24.2011 12:17 PM PDT

Imagine that tomorrow an alien race invades the Earth with intent to wipe us out. Everyone and their grandmother will take up arms and fight to protect their little bit of Earth until they die.
However it is not feasible for every nation on the planet to equip everyone in their country with weapons, armour and even basic training. They need those supplies for their own troops, whose numbers may have increased by upwards of 200% with the sudden mobilization of reserve forces.

With this in mind I don't think it would be possible for the UNSC to supply everyone, or even every male at serving age (18-40ish)
They would probably relax laws to allow ad-hoc militias to form to protect their planets.
No doubt private organizations, PMCs and the like would be granted permission to operate as legal combatants against the covenant also.

  • 04.24.2011 12:22 PM PDT

Cookie has a point. It'd be hard to equip everybody with weapons and armor + supplies.

  • 04.24.2011 12:25 PM PDT

Posted by: antony X1000
People shouldn't be forced to fight, maybe the UNSC realised that.

By the time Reach fell it wasn't looking good for humanity anyway, more soldiers (that are inexperienced) would just create a higher death toll.


They are going to die anyway, why not have a fighting chance?

  • 04.24.2011 12:32 PM PDT


Posted by: mojeda101
Posted by: antony X1000
People shouldn't be forced to fight, maybe the UNSC realised that.

By the time Reach fell it wasn't looking good for humanity anyway, more soldiers (that are inexperienced) would just create a higher death toll.


They are going to die anyway, why not have a fighting chance?

My point is that it would make a large number of people hate the UNSC, which is something they don't need when they are down to a handful of planets.

  • 04.24.2011 12:35 PM PDT


Posted by: mojeda101
Posted by: antony X1000
People shouldn't be forced to fight, maybe the UNSC realised that.

By the time Reach fell it wasn't looking good for humanity anyway, more soldiers (that are inexperienced) would just create a higher death toll.


They are going to die anyway, why not have a fighting chance?


As I said in my post, I can quite imagine that everyone has a legal right, possibly even a legal requirement to defend themselves and their homes from the covenant, but it is just not feasible to mobilize an army consisting mostly of civvies, that is at last 50% of the total population.

A smaller number of highly trained professional volunteers is much more effective than a large number of moving targets who just want to escape with their own lives.

It's in everyones best interest if the civvies evacuate and leave the fighting to the soldiers.

  • 04.24.2011 12:40 PM PDT
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I thought they did draft civilians.

Even if they didn't once word spread about a hotile alien faction attacking colonies enlistment would sky rocket from people wanting to lend a hand.

  • 04.24.2011 12:44 PM PDT

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Guys remember, hardly anyone on earth knew how the war was going, propaganda was being churned out like never before, I doubt anyone knew how many colonies had been lost, because the UNSC controlled all communication.

Also you have to remember that anti UNSC sentiment was very high and if a draft had been imposed their would have been massive reprecussions, also if the truth came out about how badly the war was going (enacting a draft) there would have been widespread panic and looting that would drastically detriment the war effort.

  • 04.24.2011 12:47 PM PDT

the civies needed to stay home and produce munitions... i would assume.

  • 04.24.2011 3:57 PM PDT

Don't worry, you're still your mom's favorite Bnet member.

I could've sworn they drafted colonists...

  • 04.24.2011 3:59 PM PDT