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.
nuts
To suggest that people won’t or don’t volunteer is not consistent with actual history of people volunteering
The draft is the left’s effort to force “universal service”. i.e. Obozo’s civilian army
This is a bad idea.
In fact, we should bring home most of our troops from overseas posts. We don’t need to be street cops.
I can believe that! The last thing I would want to deal with are people that don’t want to be there in the first place. This is a DIFFERENT WORLD than it was when there was a draft back in the sixties.
Nobody talked Draft when Obama was President... Democrats love the Draft when they’re not in power.
Yes, afternoon rags still exist.
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Draft these horrible, snowflake millennials and send them to Afghanistan or Somalia so they can see how nice they have it here in the US.
JoMa
That is absurd; when the engineers of the Vietnam War admit they made terrible mistakes a few decades later, and none of them are jailed for it, you shouldn’t expect anyone to turn over their children to the military industrial complex. I have no issue with “No tax = no vote”, but requiring service in the military, when our soldiers are still being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan with weapons we sent them 30 years ago, is nonsense. Our foreign policy is far too erratic for that, changing from one president to another.
Some European countries could keep mandatory service because they didn’t waste their citizens’ lives on nation-building.
“”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.””
This part caught my eye.
Just make a DD-214 a basic requirement for holding any type of Federal Position. We can demand a college degree, we can just as easily demand a DD-214. About 99% of the time I’s rather see a DD-214 than a college degree, tells me allot more about the person I’m hiring.
No. Not after all of the social engineering that they’ve done to the military.
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You are absolutely right. By the time these kids reach military induction age, most are recalcitrant, anti-government subverters who would wreak havoc within the ranks. Don’t ask the military to become a reform school. They do not have time for such nonsense.
If every person after high school had to give two years service ( no deferments) with the country it could be helpful. Peace Corps, US Public Health Service, Agency for Intl. Deveopment as well as military branches would allow kids to mature and develop.
#5 is wayyyy off base. Yes, there is a ‘military bureaucracy. But even in a Draft force it won’t be made up of draftees. The bureaucracy is made up of officers and very senior NCO’s, which virtually excludes the possibility of draftee origins.
Look to Israel for a successful draft model that includes both men and women.
Our government has become so corrupted that our foreign/military policy is effectively purchased by foreign interests.
I can't believe anyone on FreeRepublic could possibly be serious about drafting people so they can be used as foot soldiers for @ssholes like Sen. John McCain (R-ISIS) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Saudi Arabia).
If Israel was drafting soldiers and then sending them to take one side in a civil war in South America, I guarantee you that draft would come to an end immediately.
I disagree with all the points you listed.
For example: “An eagerness to partake in the activities of war is not necessarily good.”
If we have to go to war, one we actually need to win such as an armed invasion of our own countries borders (not the current illegal one), then we need people already in uniform that go to work without hesitation. We need loyal risk takers.
In a real all out war, who’d you rather have defending your area, a bunch of leftward indoctrinees scared of their own shadow, or a bunch of loyal men willing to brutally murder their opponents?
Not only would the conscripts be scared of their own shadow, they might believe as the enemy does and side with them at the worst time and get a bunch of good men killed.
At the end of the day, the most important issue isn't who or how many are in the fight, it's whether or not we still have a country worth fighting and dying for.
I’ve heard it time and again, even here, when talking about poor treatment of veterans...”Hey, nobody forced them to sign up”.
But if a draft seems to big of a hurdle, I’d institute a War Tax. Everybody pays, no exceptions. We simply have to have a way for everyone to have some skin in the game.
The only country that was successful with a draft has been Israel.
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