Posted on 05/31/2018 9:11:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Memorial Day in Norwich has come and gone.
For the record it was wonderful to see retired Army Colonel James Cushman, on his own two feet, as the Master of Ceremonies. The crowd was better than average in numbers and the Norwich High School madrigal choir could not have been better at singing the National Anthem.
As the 2018 speaker, Dr. Edward J. Erickson – a multi-war Army veteran – gave his remarks, one couldn’t help but notice the faces in the park were all very familiar. That is because it is the same people in attendance, year after year. Everyone at the Memorial Day ceremony is a local military veteran, the family of veterans’ or one of a handful of patriotic citizens. Dr. Erickson was truly preaching to the choir in West Park on Monday.
The gathered audience strained to hear the voices from the public address speakers, not because the volume was too low, but because the traffic on Route 12 was as busy as if it were any other Monday. The noisy traffic included several tractor-trailers making deliveries, which would have been much quieter a decade ago because most businesses closed for business back then. That was once the custom for such a solemn holiday. (During the ceremony, a Byrne Dairy tractor-trailer driver did shut down his motor at the red traffic light, and he is rightfully commended.)
As time passes, fewer people have a connection to the military, and fewer yet care about or dare to enter the armed forces. This divide between the population and those in the profession of arms is the reason there was so much traffic on Route 12 last Monday; the dangerous military mission is far from most people’s thoughts.
After the ceremony, the discussion turned to the growing gap between the military and the populace. One war-time veteran offered a solution to this issue: “Bring back the draft.”
While forced conscription seems like it would be a social equalizer, most volunteer soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines will tell you they’d rather not serve next to someone who doesn’t want to be there, especially in combat.
After I took some time thinking about mandatory military service for everyone, I realized it might actually be helpful for certain aspects of our country. The first thought that comes to mind is the interaction between many cultures. Presently the military does a great job of blending together volunteers from different backgrounds with a common goal of mission accomplishment. But just think if everyone had to serve at least one tour of duty in the military––and everyone should include women between 18 and 25 years of age.
An idea that has floated around since the War on Terror began, is for all “able aged” people to serve two-years of active duty or six-years in the reserves. For those who want to attend college full-time, there would be an R.O.T.C. commitment attached to federally funded college loans. Volunteers would be the first to fill the combat-likely jobs with draftees in the supporting positions, and draftees only filling empty combat spaces during times of war.
Speaking of war, our country has a tendency to go to war more often when volunteers make up the military. Some call it the “they asked for it” mentality. So with draftees in the ranks, our service members might stay at home more than they deploy.
Years down the road, as the draftees come of age, we all would reap the benefits of having elected leaders with a shared experience in their background. Maybe that would end some of the “us-versus-them” ranting that has infused everything in our lives and caused political gridlock over the past years. It would certainly be a breath of fresh air to have mutually respectful discussion and negotiations between politicians which was once the norm when the majority of those in office were WWII, Korea or Viet Nam veterans. Having conscription back in our country’s routine might also counter some of the anti-American activities that are flourishing on some of the college campuses around the country.
It is highly unlikely the politicians in Washington will make changes to our current Selective Service System anytime soon. We should all hope there is no world action looming that would require conscription in the meantime, because considering the remote control technology of war today, we probably would not have time to get the first draftees into uniform before it was all over.
It’s a privilege to serve, and part of me feels that those who don’t see it this way probably shouldn’t be afforded the honor.
Sure. Let’s bring back McNamara’s Morons. /s
1. This point completely overlooks an even bigger problem: We had no business fighting most of the wars we've been involved with in lifetime. Drafting people to fight wars like this doesn't solve the problem posted in #1.
2. See #1. I would add that a large standing Federal army -- especially one that is dispersed all over the world in places where Congress has never declared war -- has no justification on constitutional grounds.
3. This is very typical of what you find in an empire, not a sovereign nation. This points to a much bigger problem that isn't going to be solved with a draft.
4. There's nothing "unfair" about this at all. Tell the people in the Southeast to stop enlisting.
5. See #2. The best way to eliminate military bureaucrats is to eliminate our standing army almost entirely. If it's not repelling the invasion across our southern border than it is useless anyway. The term "military career" should disappear from our lexicon.
I’ve got a funny idea on how to raise an army. I’m constantly hearing about Adam Smith, capitalism, the free market, Etc. How’s about we pay the salary that it takes to attract the people you need? Pay a PFC 80,000 a year, and you can pick and choose the best ones. A draft is nothing more than an attempt to pay far below Market wages for the work required.
I’m against the draft.
It has never worked the way some people think. It did not provide the proper mix. Plus the waste required to have a draft is stupid
It’s estimated that 70 percent of the male population is ineligible to serve in todays military.
Point one shows just how stupid the writer is
Take a look at WWII.......take a look at the enlistment rate after 9/11
My cousin Earl was one. Was sent home from Vietnam for tinkering with explosives. OTOH, the MI career counselor grabbed me by the ear and said I was not to talk to any other counselors at the MEPS.
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!! But if they impose a draft, their kids go first!
No service = No vote
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Seems like those forefathers tried to cover it all
- To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
- To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
- To provide and maintain a Navy;
- To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
- To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
- To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
2) I didn't get the impression that he favors a large standing army when there isn't a corresponding war that actually justifies it.
3) See above.
4) He doesn't argue that they shouldn't enlist. He does argue that such geographic isolation of our armed forces is unhealthy from a national standpoint, and gives several reasons why.
5) You'll find that he's in full agreement with you on that one. The 'U.S. military’s marathon, 30-year, single-elimination, suck-up tournament' or 'How America selects its generals'
He doesn’t sound very intelligent. He sounds like one of those guys who thinks he knows what’s best for everybody else, and how they should live their life. Him being a soldier doesn’t cut any ice with me, or a lot of people.
Did you even read the whole thing? It covers a lot more than the bare-bones I mentioned.
What is your argument? Here is another sample on your topic of choice:
The Twentieth Century World Wars were considered “good” wars. Studs Terkel wrote a book about World War II called, The Good War.
But “goodness” notwithstanding, and the total unity of the American people notwithstanding, the military still could not get enough volunteers and had to draft. Furthermore, they not only drafted people into the Army, like my father and uncles, they also drafted people into the Navy and Marine Corps. They even drafted openly-gay men. So our vow that we will never again have a draft condemns us to losing any future large-scale war. It is impossible as a practical matter to win any but the smallest wars without a draft. That is a statement of arithmetic, not opinion.
*snip*
Am I advocating universal military service? No. I sort of like the idea from an egalitarian standpoint, but I doubt it would be practical. We are the third most populous country in the world after China and India. We have 310 million people. If you remove people who are what was called 4-F (physically unfit) during World War II, you would still probably have about 250 million to serve when they passed through their late teens or early twenties. That’s a lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines for a country that currently only has 500,000 military on active duty and 700,000 in the Guard and Reserves.
If you figure the 250 million Americans have about 60 years of adult life, on average, you would have about 4 million people at each age. If, say, you made age 19 the year for military service, we would have a 4-million person military continuously. Actually, it would go up and down due to the Baby Boom, echo of the Baby Boom, and so forth. That is a World War II level of manpower. We had 8 million in uniform the day that war ended in 1945.
*snip*
In addition to being a massive military probably bigger than we need, it would cost an astonishing amount, and render those same 4 million a year veterans eligible for medical care, education and home mortgage benefits. Not only would the cost of maintaining so many in the military be huge, their absence from the civilian workforce would also take a huge toll in lost income taxes, productivity, etc. In September 2006, only 1.7 million Americans were unemployed. So you can see that putting 4 million a year in the military would greatly disrupt the civilian work force.
So I am discussing universal military service only to put what I am advocating—universal eligibility for a lottery-based draft—into perspective and to compare to other nations’ military draft policies.
If you figure half the current active-duty people would be draftees, you would be drafting about 1/2 x 400,000 = 200,000 a year and if there are indeed 4 million eligible, that would be 200,000 ÷ 4,000,000 = 5%. At present, I believe we recruit about 80,000 a year into the military. If that were all you wanted to draft, the percentage of people 19 years old being drafted would be 80,000 ÷ 4,000,000 = 2%. So the average eligible person would have 98% probability of not being drafted.
SJW’s effect on the military is to good policy what vomit on a sidewalk (or a Jackson Pollock) is to art.
Yep. There’s nothing like a conscript army to make a nation proud!
Hell no!
No draft.
Our long term goal should be to replace foot soldiers, pilots, and front line decision makers with as many robots, and as much Artificial Intelligence, as technically possible.
Weird how some libtards are obsessed with bringing back the draft. I hope the dems run with it, watch their popularity with young voters take a nosedive.
A draft has always been put in place in a time of declared war which is perceived as an existential threat to the nation. It has never been used as a means of social engineering. And “force everyone into uniform where they have to obey orders” is a totalitarian’s wet dream. Count my vote as a Nay.
----Robert A. Heinlein
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