Bring back the military draft in the USA

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It's not so much the draft to benefit the military, but to benefit society who seem burdened by all the arrogant, entitled, irresponsible and spoiled youth.
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Seems that they all expect a lot and are willing to offer NOTHING to support the country/lifestyle they enjoy. I think the draft will straighten the situation out FAST.
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I know the military wants "the brightest", but at least the dumb ones will provide some cannon fodder, al la Darwin.
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While there are many lazy, spoiled Generation Xer's, many of us are working more hours, are more in debt bc of massive student loans and having to put off families and buying houses than previous generations. My job security isn't as good as it once was. (India).

Making such generalizations makes you look like a dope. I personally don't want to be in a ground war with a bunch of fanatical Muslims. I'd rather just wipe them off the map with some Nukes than get into the p@ssing contest we are in right now with Iraq. Let them liberate themselves. So when are you going?
 
Buster, let's not make it a political issue, it a sociological one. I would be 100% ready to go if asked, have some military experience and already feel that I support my country now, serving as an elected offical. My observation is that other countries have compusory service and it seems to have the effect of galvanizing the citizens together, quite the opposite is the case here in the USA, but that's political. My assertion here is that, yes, Gen X and even worse Gen Y, seem to have no capacity for toughness and belief in the principles that bind our people together. The draft and military service specificly would maybe give them an idea of how great the country they were lucky enough to be born in is, and how serving in the armed forces is an honour and calling yourself an American carries some responsability. The point I really want to make is that young people nowadays are clueless and ignorant. Ask some of the smart and culturally aware guys here who are also young, they know where their peers heads are at...la-la land. I'M SURE they all feel fighting for America is the job of "someone else". What percent of eligible aged citizens does the boot camp and active millitary repersent? Part of 1%?
 
I don't want to serve with anyone who doesn't want to freely serve.
no offense to those who served while the draft was going on but we have a much higher quality military now then we did back then. quantity doesn't equal quality and we still have plenty of bright young folks signing up to serve and better their lives.
 
We have not a "volunteer" military, but a mercenary force. This is not the proper military for a democracy, but it works for the disengaged times we live in. National service -- no exceptions, no delayed entry -- is a better answer. Should be a requirement of citizenship.
 
This isn't intended as political, but as social commentary: a draft will be perceived as sending our kids to fight in the Middle East for cheap oil. There is a hard core of truth to this anyway.

If you think we had intergenerational conflict during the Vietnam War, just wait until we draft our teens to fight so that the 45-year-old with his Suburban and the 65-year-old with his 8-mpg motorhome can continue to guzzle cheap fuel. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Today's "spoiled" teens are a very small but highly visible minority. A truer statement would be that most of today's teens are out of luck and know it for the reasons Buster gave in his first paragraph. Many of the problems are caused by faulty and absent parenting anyway, that is, not the kids' faults.

The truly spoiled people in the US are those over 65, not youth. The elderly have all kinds of government giveaways that they voted for for themselves even as programs to benefit children and poor families were sliced or eliminated. The joke is that unlike the children, the elderly had a lifetime to save and plan for old age. Also, the older baby boomers have grabbed most of the opportunities and as business managers have been a direct cause of outsourcing overseas and other changes that have been detrimental to everybody, especially the young.

We also simply don't hear much about the good that many teens do, such as volunteering, helping others, and so forth. As always, the media accentuate the negative, helping lead to stereotyping of whole groups.

A draft might work if the military were expected simply to police the borders and protect our territories. Without this restriction, it is too easy and tempting for our government leaders to use a draft to send our armed forces to meddle overseas, as was done in Vietnam. Our young people deserve better.
 
Whoever gets thar fustest with the mostest.

But, ol' Nathan Forrest was speaking before air-delivered weaponry, napalm, and even more vicious things that send out massive shock waves, tremendous amounts of heat and ionizing radiation.

Why can't we just stay home once in awhile and let some of those other countries do the dirty work?

George Washington warned us of foreign entanglements.

If we are in peril, attacked, etc. we do have to defend ourselves but can't we avoid the knee-jerk reactions that seem to guide us?
 
An across-the-board draft will pretty much eliminate stupidities like todays. We may need to have a military presence in the Middle East, but not under the pretense and strategic failure we're seeing.

If everyone's kid is in it, then folks will wake up. Agreed that the military ought to be along the borders: teaching survival skills and the specialized training they are not doing now to create soldiers and marines capable of taking the fight to the enemy, not video games and swimming pools in the Green Zone and FOB's.

The fact is that we cannot afford a national draft any longer. Not without bringing the corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals back into line with the [fair] tax burden they once assumed. NAFTA, CAFTA and WTO provisions affecting our sovereignty will also come into trouble domestically.

It's a mercenary army for the foreseeable future.
Currently, 35,000 foreigners serve in the US military on active duty, another 12,000 in the Reserves.

Rome prospered on such an arrangement, why not us?
 
Some good posts. I'm done for the night, keep it clean...it's a sociological/economic post, not political and remember, the millitary is a non-political body.
 
I would say 2 years of federal service ..but then you would have people pulling stuff to get their kids all the good positions and the rest would be sand pounders. There's plenty of need in all areas. It would surely socialize many of them.

I'd go for a draft ..but only if there were NO EXEMPTIONS. Everybody goes with some type of lottery that no one can wiggle out of if they happen to draw the short straw(s).
 
quote:
Originally posted by ekrampitzjr:

The truly spoiled people in the US are those over 65, not youth. The elderly have all kinds of government giveaways that they voted for for themselves even as programs to benefit children and poor families were sliced or eliminated.
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Right on man...

If I have to hear again about Tom Brokaw's "greatest generation" being annoyed by this or that, I'll get ill. And getting drafted by these dolts while I'm buying their prescription drugs won't make me have any more respect for that generation.

The only plus is having a few senators' sons ready for the sandbox at any given time, might make things a little more dovish. Hopefully that would counteract the "I've got all these men and machines, let's invade someone, yeee-haaw" attitude that might surface.
 
quote:
George Washington warned us of foreign entanglements.
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So said Thomas Jefferson as well. But the actions turned out to be different than the words. And sociologically speaking we keep coming back for more.

I'm not for the draft to somehow get our youth in order. That's what killing your TV is all about.
 
People of a certain age have always said the youth of our country are selfish, worthless, etc.
Most who would favor a draft are those who wouldn't be drafted.
If someone doesn't want to be in the military, why would you want them to be there with you?
ekrampitzjr makes good points.
 
Take a bunch of old bast@rds like me.

BTW, Osama Bin Laden enlisted thousands of our civilians into military service on 9/11/2001.

He has enlisted 100's of millions more of us, in case it hasn't been noticed.


Get well Tony!
 
I happen to think that if it wasn't for the greatest generation, specifically the old timers that fought in WWII, I might still be sperm. You don't see todays youth willing to sacrifice what WWII vets sacrificed to get the job done against the enemy. But todays conflict is an entirely tangled mess of which the country doesn't seem to be completely united in common cause so to speak.

I couldn't respect the "greatest generation" more
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I think we may need a draft. It seems the world's powers are strategically aligning in ways eerie similar to the two previous great wars of the 20th century and our military is soooo overextended now that if we really do need to take car of business somewhere else, we may not be able to do it. Airpower alone can't do it, unless we want to resort to terror like WWII tactics.
 
I don't know, but somethings got to give. Look how we ahve changed since 9/11. Lots of hatred towards the good ol' US right now and it ain't going to get any better.
 
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