Posted on 03/16/2011 10:12:42 AM PDT by Rufii
It Feels Drafty
By John H. TaylorMy cousin and fellow Episcopalian and blogger, Bebe Bahnsen, believes it's time for rich and poor to share the burden of defending our country. For one thing, she thinks we'd all pay more attention to decisions about where, when, and how military force is used:
And I believe it should be a universal draft—men and women. The new draft I envision would require one or two years of service from all young Americans. Many would probably be in the military but there might be other ways to perform required service—teaching or assisting in substandard schools where children are destined for failure without special attention, for instance. Or volunteering in crime prevention programs in high-crime areas. Spending a year or two helping to rebuild this country’s crumbling infrastructure might be a possibility.
It might be necessary to stipulate a certain number of draftees for military service. In that case, the draft would have to be a system such as the lottery during the Vietnam War.
This was a crazy idea when Bill Buckley floated it, and it’s still nuts. We do not need a draft for the military, and schools should all be privatized, anyway. Staff inner-city schools with Marines, and those kids will learn!
I bet this guy never served in the military. It’s a bad idea. The US military is doing great as an all volunteer force. It doesn’t need to be someone’s social experiment.
One or two years of service isn’t even long enough to learn most trades. It would suck money from the defense of the country and use it to train a bunch of kids who don’t want to be there on jobs they’ll never perform.
Yeah, that whole concept worked so well in Vietnam times - oh wait.
Thats the idea! Take the most efficient fighting force that the world has ever seen and return it to a motley bunch of sullen draftees.
Brilliant!
And the budget for this behemoth would be?
You have inadvertently identified the problem.;-)
Maybe if the country is attacked, it would be acceptable.
But look how Vietnam tore the country apart. Why hasn't Iraq and Afghanistan done the same thing despite the best efforts of the Left? lack of conscription.
Dems were against it in Vietnam, and for it during the Bush era. In both cases it was to destroy their hated political enemies rather than for any principled reason, however wrong.
As an AF veteran, I completely agree with you. I’d rather fight next to a wounded volunteer than a sullen draftee.
On the other hand, making everyone pay taxes as soon as they turn 18 would give everyone a stake in the gov’t and reducing the deficit, which is a far greater existential threat to the US.
He never served.
Should we enter into a very large world war, the first line of call-up is prior service people. Once an all volunteer Army was established, the facilities to handle large numbers of draftees disappeared.
Anyway, even knowing this I do not agree with conscription. I didn't want to risk my life with someone who didn't want to be with the military when I was in, and I don't want them defending me and mine now.
Exceedingly short-sighted and naive idea.
No, or at least not for this reason. It amounts to holding unwilling civilians hostage against interventionist foreign policy. It also dilutes the talent pool and lowers morale - I happen to know, I served in the last years of the draft military and the first few of the all-volunteer. Huge difference.
If there were a draft it could be avoided by flunking the drug test. In order to make the draft universal the military would have to draft dopers.
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