Mandatory Military Service

Well, now it'll be mandatory. Or at least, mandatory unless you dont want a college degree. So Trump and Bush's children have to serve. No questions and no exceptions. I do always hate it when people advocate for a war but aren't willing to fight it.

 

Or it can provide a pool of cannon fodder for any wars the pols decide to make. Vietnam was fought mainly by conscripts. It's necessary to exempt some people and thus easy to exempt your kids from combat if you have money enough. Besides lots of people who use war to advance their fortunes generally care even less for their own children than they do other's.

 

Yes, the Swiss are much smarter.

But besides the prohibitive costs, I just don't see much value in mandatory service...for the military.

First, most young people of draft age are not fit to serve. I think I've seen estimates like up to 70% could not qualify for military service under current admission rules. So what kind of draft is it when most people are not qualified?

 

They will always have the advantage. Get used to it.

 

Just think of it as a six month long fat camp.

 

For somebody else at my expense, a conservative's dream, yes?

 

Then it's not military at all, it's just a waste of resources.

 

I only been to Switzerland a few times and trained with the Swiss military a few times. My impression is that they are not much different than U.S. fitness wise. Interestingly, one of the bunch I trained with, the captain was a bank clerk and one of his privates was the bank president. Folks seem to have a higher opinion of the military once they understand what is involved. This may be the reason we call the WWII bunch the greatest generation because most of them served in the military.

 

Absolutely not. Everyone doesn't have the mental fortitude.

 

I think military service is beneficial and a good thing, but unless there is a military need for millions of semi skilled "soldiers" who don't want to be there to throw into some meatgrinder, there is no military need for a draft. And ultimately, national security should be the guidance on a draft, not social engineering.

Why don't we walk before we run? We're going to have to modify selective service anyway to accommodate the recent decision to open all jobs in the military to women. So why don't we simultaneously make selective service voluntary as we open it up to women, and then you can do all of the social engineering you want, such as requiring participants to stay within military weight standards if they want to keep the student loan money rolling in?

Make Selective Service Selective

 

I would caveat that with 2 years of public service in the fields such as fire-fighter, police, military, etc.

 

No. The draft provides no motivation to perform well.

As a counter proposal, have military service required to vote. It show a regard for the well being of others and weeds out the ones who expect everything to be handed to them for doing nothing.

 

No, not for anyone. ...especially women who, in the military, are denigrated for their service, raped with no repercussions, and passed over for promotions...

But no one should be forced into indentured servitude.

 

And exactly how many Clintons have served in the military, or how many Gores?

You comment makes no sense.

 

In normal cases of peacetime, an all volunteer military should be used---now that's for free nations, not socialist ones.

Women are unfit for modern ground combat. They are biologically inferior for modern infantry roles, and on top of that, would make poor force multipliers when clerks, cooks and other support people are needed in desperate situations.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8477683

For the unwashed who have little concept of modern warfighting, an excellent recent example of how everyone at a base needs to be able to run and gun is described in the book Red Platoon. When an entire small US base was surrounded on all sides by Islamic fighers, partly over-run, and almost wiped out.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-platoon-clinton-romesha/1122539129

 

Proof of your claim on the number of conscripts versus volunteers in the Viet Nam war would certainly be nice. I don't remember it that way.

 

Please be so good as to cite where in the constitution this is stated.

Plus, what you claim is an indictment of Obama for reducing "such things" with the apparent goal of their removal.

 

No way. Volunteer service works just fine.

 

Neither family is the warmongers that the right wingers are. But in the event that they approve of war (assuming all the facts like Downing Street Memo are disclosed) , then they should have to pay the same price.

 

New report from University of Minnesota just disclosed in this morning's news indicates war casualties from Vietnam war onwards reveal that the majority of deaths/injuries suffered are to soldiers from poor families. I thought this was always true but will try to get further details later on .....

 

A Starship Troopers Republic!

I'm on board.

 

One in which the genetic quality available for replenishment of the population will deteriorate if there is a costly war. The claim has been made that the French are short because of Napoleon's wars.

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The elites are always trying to do things that will eliminate viable competition; that never changes.

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IMO that would overly militarize the political viewpoint in this country, which is plenty militarized already IMO.

 

In major emergencies there really have to be...but peoples' lives should not be completely taken over and ruined just to spare others who avoid service and don't appreciate or even understand the efforts of others.

 

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It doesn't explicitly state that. Don't take things too literally. Jeez.The constitution has made it mandatory for military people to be cared for and paid while they are serving.

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How much would doing this cost us taxpayers? Do you have a clue?

 

For one there is no possible way the country could afford it. Military service is astronomically expensive.
Second, build a massive military and it will be necessary then to have lots of wars.
You don't even hint at a reason why to do it anyway.