Save America: Restore the draft

The Washington Post ^ | November 29, 2013 | Dana Milbank

[2ndDivisionVet]

At this time of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for the U.S. military — not just for the usual reason that it protects us from our foes but also because it has the potential to save us from ourselves.

As I make my rounds each day in the capital, chronicling our leaders’ plentiful foibles, failings, screw-ups, inanities, outrages and overall dysfunction, I’m often asked if there’s anything that could clean up the mess.

My usual answer is a shrug and an admission that there’s no silver bullet. There are many possibilities — campaign spending limits, term limits, nonpartisan primaries, nonpartisan redistricting, a third party — but most aren’t politically or legally feasible, might not make much of a difference or, as with Harry Reid’s rewriting of Senate rules, have the potential to make things even worse.

But one change, over time, could reverse the problems that have built up over the past few decades: We should mandate military service for all Americans, men and women alike, when they turn 18. The idea is radical, unlikely and impractical — but it just might work.

There is no better explanation for what has gone wrong in Washington in recent years than the tabulation done every two years of how many members of Congress served in the military....

[Radix]

The Army Basic Training us much more difficult now than it was 35 years ago.

That seems counterintuitive because of news articles regarding the PC nonsense which prevails our culture but I contend that the physical and mental demands are more taxing.

Of course this does not apply to the women's version where they allow bent knee push ups and shorter distance running as well as other concessions because of the upper body strength differences, (and others.)

Perhaps the system was more rigorous in the 40s and 50s in some ways. Of course the humiliations and other forms of abuse have been diminished which I do not necessarily agree with entirely, but the actual physical challenges these days are tougher and more difficult.

I watched videos of my son's Basic and I was astonished at how much more difficult if looked than what things were during my time,

[ansel12]

I question that, at least comparing it to before the draft ended.

I would like to see those videos, I know that the PT test is lighter than it used to be, 40 years ago it was a 500 point test.

Jump school is definitely easier.

I’m pretty sure the death rate in basic is lower, especially in training Army wide, we used to lose thousands annually in the cold war military.

[EricT.]

I fail to see what is ridiculous about my statements and why you are being so hostile. You make it sound like I support a draft. I don’t. I’m just making an observation of why a Democrat might be pushing for it.

[ansel12]

Even that was ridiculous, I haven’t made you sound as though you support a draft.

I have said that it is silly to claim that we use the draft to cure unemployment, and that we fight wars to kill off the “excess” young men who are unemployed.

That democrat that wrote the article isn’t talking about an actual draft either, he is using a weird fantasy that he doesn’t actually desire, about something he clearly doesn’t’ understand, to create some gibberish about nothing, he even has fighter pilot George W., in the non-veteran column of presidents.