It's about time that this country required mandatory national service of its youth. I served two combat tours in Vietnam with 2/7th Cavalry and 11th Av Pathfiners. I favor mandatory military service for all US residents for a period of three years to be served between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Service would involve a three year commitment in the regular Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard or Air Force. Service in the Merchant Marine or attendance at the service academies would not qualify. Conciencious objection to mandatory military service based on religious or moral beliefs would be subject to board approval. Anyone being granted a concientious exemption would be required to serve three years working full time on a public welfare project such as in a public health clinic, native american reservation, public works infrastructure projects or inner city improvement project. Those who complete a continuous period of three years of military service would, among other normal benefits, receive a free undergraduate education at a state college or technical college. What say you? Regards, Jason Bourne
It won't work in any western country; there's so little respect for authority, and so much contempt for the political classes there would be mass refusal. Then what?
It worked during WWII and Vietnam. National service worked in Great Britain after WWII. If someone refuses service, they lose all social benefits and are subject to prosecution. Plenty of "western" coutries have compulsory military service. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_service Regards, Jason Bourne
3 Countries with mandatory military service 3.1 Armenia 3.2 Austria 3.3 Belarus 3.4 Azerbaijan 3.5 Bermuda 3.6 Brazil 3.7 Myanmar (Burma) 3.8 Cyprus 3.9 Denmark 3.10 Egypt 3.11 Finland 3.12 Greece No western countries there?
How do you define a "western country?" And why would object to mandatory national service? Regards, Jason Bourne
Any country in the western hemisphere. And after how vets have been treated here and in the US I wouldn't blame the defaulters. One soldier here was persecuted by our Ministry of Defence for 3 years for shooting a fatally wounded Iraqi(?) and it tipped him and his marriage over the edge. Here's the story https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19854...olice-over-his-account-of-iraq-mercy-killing/ One of the 'lions' destroyed by the donkeys??????
And how have vets been treated in the United States? My mistake. I didn't realize that you're from the UK. My OP regards mandatory military or national service in the United States. I mean no offense, but I couldn't care lees what the UK does. Plenty of reasons why we need such service. Regards, Jason Bourne
I say No to government slavery. If the government wants people to fight for them, let them offer pay and benefit incentives to get enough recruits. - - - Updated - - - What were the desertion and drug abuse rates among draftees during WW2 and Vietnam? You are aware that the majority of deployed servicemembers in Vietnam were volunteers, right?
We're a totally different country now. In 1945 we were a country of 139 million with 15 million under arms. Now, we're a nation of 320 million and couldn't field a military half that size even if we had the money for it. 70% of young people of military age are unqualified for military service. We have a young generation of fatties, druggies, dummies, and various tattooed freaks with criminal records. In World War II, the person unqualified for military service was the exception, now, to be qualified is the exception. Vietnam and the boomer generation burned the idea of a draft for good. We could face an alien invasion and the minute the government proposed a draft the courts would stop it. Sure, the aliens would prepare us according to their book "To Serve Man (spoiler alert, it's a cookbook)," but it wouldn't matter to the courts.
If it were required, we could still do the draft. Might take a couple more weeks of "fat boy" basic training, but it would happen. I don't underestimate what American youth can do if forced to.
Yes, national service for civilians is also a good idea as well, for those who can't qualify for the military; there are plenty of jobs people of all abilities can do as a part of national service. And, they can use it to earn vouchers for college and the rest as well.
Not speaking re the US but just a personal observation. An uncle of mine (when I lived in the UK as a kid) was a teddy boy. Cerberus will know what I mean but just in case....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Boy He was a real tear-arse. Anyway it was about 1958 I think or thereabouts, he was required to do his NS with the Army. They sent him to Kenya and he came across the work of the Mau Mau. When he came back to the UK he was totally changed. Began an apprenticeship, got married, worked hard, built himself up from a tear-away to owning his own plumbing business.
Same here; many were given a choice between prison or jail or joining up, and many went on to straighten themselves out, more did that didn't. It's also an opportunity to increase some sort of assimilation, just as it did to the huge immigrant waves of the pre-WW I era. Many immigrants were still largely speaking their own languages in ethnically 'pure' neighborhoods right up to WW II.
Yeah, and the draftees were such fabulous military personnel in Vietnam too, huh? I've seen dozens of videos of draftees in Vietnam just outright refusing to follow orders from ranking officers.
I can only speak to those "draftees" that I served with in Vietnam, but the vast majority were good, brave soldiers whose lives were interrupted by the war. Many were seriously wounded or killed. You apparently never served in Vietnam or elsewhere and form your flawed opinion based on movies. How convenient for you to be able to sit on your rear, safe at home and form foolish and misinformed opinions. Regards, Jason Bourne - - - Updated - - - Read my post. I've suggested an alternative for concientious objectors. Regards, Jason Bourne
I see. You're a defeatist who favors letting people enjoy the benefits of living in the United States without providing service to earn those benefits. Regards, Jason Bourne - - - Updated - - - I see. You're a defeatist who favors letting people enjoy the benefits of living in the United States without providing service to earn those benefits. Regards, Jason Bourne - - - Updated - - - I see. You're a defeatist who favors letting people enjoy the benefits of living in the United States without providing service to earn those benefits. Regards, Jason Bourne
to order someone to do pushups in the military thats what you say. implying that if the entitled soft youth in our nation have a problem with thd DIs authority, they can do push ups and....think about it >