OT: bring back the draft

[scaredyclassic]

i’ve been reading a bit about some recent proposals to bring back the draft. I’m starting to think it might be the right thing. bring back the draft, but raise the age to 59, because people live longer nowadays. make it universal. No exemptions.

PROS:

1. political pressure will exist to keep US out of really dumb wars.
2. no more political leverage to politicians who wore a uniform, since everyone will ahve done so.
3. no more having to preface every remark to a vet/soldier with “thank you for your service”. service is part of living in the country.
4. social cohesiveness.

CONS:

none.

Switzerland has mandatory military service and recently voted by an overwhelming majority to retain it in a referendum on the issue. The military should not be volunteer, it should not be a career, it should not be borne by only a tiny percentage of the population and military should not be a lifestyle or a career for the rank and file.

it should be something that everyone does, like pay taxes. it would tie lower class people more deeply to society. it would be a great levelling force against social inequality.

if we want peace, and to slow down the military industrial complex, I am thinking, the only way may be througha draft.

to those who say it won’t work, I guess what theya re saying is that the brave soldiers who fought in Vietnam or wwii who were drafted werent fit to wear the uniform. How dare you.

Professionalizing a military is dangerous.

[livinincali]

[quote=scaredyclassic]
CONS:

none.
[/quote]

Our mass killings shooters will now have military training and actually know how to use and shoot that assault riffle.

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=livinincali][quote=scaredyclassic]
CONS:

none.
[/quote]

Our mass killings shooters will now have military training and actually know how to use and shoot that assault riffle.[/quote]

cancelled out by the trained responding citizens

[joec]

Some advanced economies/countries actually have forced military service for a few years. I don’t think it’s a bad idea per se, but I’d have to research and read why the draft was done away with to begin with here and see if that reason still applies…

Here’s a map of what country this still occurs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription

Some countries I found notable still with a draft are: Austria, China, Denmark, Finland, Israel, South Korea, Norway, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand…

That said, a lot of wars aren’t fought by troops alone anymore and some cons the military state is that they don’t actually want people who don’t want to be there…

You would probably also have suicide crazies like it was posted if everyone had the training, not to mention the stress of it all.

I think also, unlike a LOT and nearly every foreign country in the world, the USA isn’t as homogeneous of like minded or similar minded people. Since this country has all immigrants, trying to get them to work together when they probably hate their fellow American or come from a totally different background doesn’t sound like a recipe for success…You already see this in business/professional life where if you aren’t in the old boys club, you aren’t going to get ahead…

A lot of countries probably use this more as a defensive mechanism…If there was an option to have conscription PURELY for defense like if China invades, then I think more people would be for it…Like you can’t be deployed in a foreign country and only in CA or US, etc…

I certainly don’t care about big oil in the middle east or political games in Russia/Ukraine to want to go there to defend people or BIG BUSINESS I don’t know/care about or if I even know who is in the right…

I doubt this will ever fly here again.

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=livinincali][quote=scaredyclassic]
CONS:

none.
[/quote]

Our mass killings shooters will now have military training and actually know how to use and shoot that assault riffle.[/quote]

cancelled out by the trained responding citizens[/quote]

Oh… You mean like the Ukraine…

Makes perfect sense.

CE

[spdrun]

The problem is that the average American is an uneducated militarist, and it will take at least one pointless war with a draft to disabuse him of the RAH-RAH-RAH-*WAR* mindset. If the draft comes back and such a war happens, I’m renouncing my citizenship and leaving the country. I have no interest in dying for the whim of my government and the blithering idiots who elected it. I mean, you’re talking about the same people who elected Dubya Bush. Twice.

This being said, in the long run, it’s a good idea, but implementation will be painful.

[Hatfield]

On the other hand, after decades of enduring military coup after coup, Costa Rica disbanded its military. They still have national service, but it seems to mostly be spent doing WPA and CCC like projects. They have an amazing network of really well maintained national parks.

[The-Shoveler]

We do that and we will be speaking Canadian in a heartbeat eh?

[Author]

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