A Draft is Necessary for America

if there were a draft i dont think you would actually see the people in combat.

America has never really been a country like Russia or China or even Japan that throws masses of people at a military problem to take care of it casualties be damned. Most of the time it relies on superior firepower. Normally America wouldnt even bother storming a postiion unless it has been thouroughly bombarded and even then only with tanks at the front. This is the proper way to do things of course but it doesnt require the masses of people that more risky strategies would use.

As a country and culture America is also more sensitive to casualties and its collective will is easier to break. Around 3000 people died in DDay and we have a holiday for it rememberances and everything. That is just one day in stalingrad or one failed offensive by the Chinese or Japanese. America really cannot sustain the casualties of a war fought by draft (psycologically not physically).

 

Generally, this is true. Americans basically subscribe to Patton's theory that you fight to make the enemy die for his country, not to die for yours.

And, yet, when Americans truly believe in a cause they will not let go. 4000 died at Antietam, when we were a much smaller country. Americans could have easily voted in McClellan and let the South go. They didn't.

 

Not surprising, is it? It's not like the voters have a choice. We're not asked in a referendum whether we the people want to go to war. No, the government tells us what's what and goes off to kill people on our behalf and our dime.

 

well to be perfectly fair that was really the first major war the US was in. They didnt understand what they were getting into. I believe that experience is one of the causes of the aversion to casualties.

 

Uncle Ferd says, "Well, dat's part o' equal rights too, don't ya know...

Bill Requiring Women to Register for the Draft Passes Senate
Jun 16, 2016 | A provision that would require women to register for the military draft alongside men for the first time in American history was included as part of the massive 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that passed the Senate handily on Tuesday with an 85-13 vote.

 

Registration is one thing.

Successful involuntary induction is the land mark I await.

9 months deployment anywhere should initiate induction with deployment aimed at 12 months.
Then see how long our Not At War, Wars last.

Currently their should be an induction aimed at needs in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The all volunteer forces causes the wealthier Americans not to bleed as the poor do.

Moi

 

Allowing Peace Corp service to count towards draft...

Sebastian Junger's Draft Proposal: Service with Non-Military Options
Jun 18, 2016 | For American service members, coming back from war can be its own form of psychological trauma. That's a theory advanced by acclaimed author and war journalist Sebastian Junger in his recently published book, "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging."

 

Cool, can we build our own roads, hospitals, and license our own doctors?

It's interesting that you mention that government provides the hospitals and then complain about the entitled generation. What is entitlement if not getting free heatlhcare from the government? Maybe you should look in the mirror before complaining about the expectations of others.

So worshipful....

 

4,000 died at Antietam because of no body armor, no modern anti-biotics, surgical techniques that more resemble medieval torture than medicine, doctors did not even know they needed to wash their hands, and most importantly the use of battle tactics that were out of date due to the technology available.

People wouldn't accept casualties like Antietam today because our technology has evolved to the point where those casualties shouldn't happen.

 

I still think broadening Selective Service to include women, while at the same time making it voluntary is the way to go.

Make Selective Service Selective

Don't register, no student loans.

 

If one decides to dodge the draft, they can become president. Like Mr. Clinton did, what a patriot.

 

Draft may not apply to women...

Congress May Not Require Women Register for Draft
Nov 08, 2016 | While U.S. Defense Department officials have made clear it has no problem with requiring women to register for the draft, lawmakers in Congress appear poised to dodge the issue in the upcoming battle over the defense policy bill.

 

I don't have a problem with your proposal, as long as, every male in this country has to do it. Nobody gets off because they are rich and have money to buy their way out.

 

Agree 100% - No free ride and EVERYONE has or had skin in the game.

 

Alternatively, we could notice that we aren't owned by the government and say no to forced labor.

 

Yup, that's ok but NO government freebies then.

 

Many of those "freebies" go to children or to people who are disabled. They don't them either?

 

I think it should be the other way around. I think we should offer one year of optional military service and training with no risk of deployment. At the end of the year you can choose whether or not you want to stay. You get trained. You get the paycheck. You get the values and the discipline, and you can quit if you want to, but if you do make it a year, then you can put it on your resume. You can choose to join one of the armed forces, or you can take your paycheck and go off to college or whatever you want to do. I think many people have no idea what they want to do with their lives at 18, and giving them this option would grow our military. It would also give a lot more people gun training, which I think we need if we're going to keep the 2nd amendment around.

 

Why would you waste all of that training on people who are going to be non deployable?

 

Vietnam would never have been possible without the draft to feed the war machine. If anyone were to seriously propose it, I would take to the streets just like I did in 1969, and I would actively encourage kids to resist in almost any way possible, legal, or illegal.

 

Because I don't see it as a waste. I see people who have lost their jobs because of market forces and then they have to sink years of their life into debt and college as a waste. I also think that putting people on welfare for a set time just so they can reposition themselves into a shrinking industry to be a waste, but that is what unemployment does. It encourages people to do nothing whiless they look for a new job. Essentially they are standing still. Why not give those people education while they are looking? It doesn't have to be in a different field. In fact, I think one of the things that ishe needed is a report that explains to people, in a clear way, how many jobs there are for a particular skill and how many applicants exist for those jobs. Our workforce needs to be more organized in that sense. People need to know what is an attractive career, and they need to understand how to get into those positions.

 

If you are training people for war, and then a war pops up, it doesn't make much sense to me to release all of the people you've just trained for war.

 

Then you better open it to people with any kind of disability no matter how severe or it would violate the ADA and it would demand an Amendment to the US Constitution.

 

If they can not vote the government has no right to tax the, "No taxation without representation" remember?

 

I will support a draft, either into the military or national guard, as long as it includes a requirement that all US corporations sell goods and services to the government to aid with the war effort. Since, corporations are recognized as people now, they must be held to the same standard as everyone else.


Also, there needs to be a vounteers first policy where the draft is only activated if minimum enlistment needs have not been met.