I’m afraid that compulsory service would just bog down our military with millions of petulant, perpetual adolescents who are beyond training or salvage. They’d burn up all of their time filling out discharge paperwork.
That sounds about right, but then the military is expert at turning boys into men. Attend any Army basic training course graduation and watch the women crying as their sons, now men, greet their family after the ceremony. And personally I have seen sock parties where petulant youth were shown the error of their ways and became more manly because of it. And thirdly it is a rite of passage then bonds men together.