And I would be willing to bet the farm that there would be massive fraud committed by many in order to get their kids waivers.
No way.
Huh? If, as some people are predicting, they choose the site in the Maryland suburbs of DC (close to where I live), there’s no cotton to be found – just a big empty space where a defunct shopping mall used to be.
Marian, it was just an analogy related to post #13.
I agree 100% with romani’s post #18.
Plus, this would be ridiculously unfair and a massive government boondoggle waste of money. How many hundreds of billions of dollars would this cost to force people to do something that many wouldn’t want to do, would be a waste of time and lost opportunities for others, and those with the means or willingness to lie could get out of unfairly? All when we have plenty of volunteers to do these jobs already.
With only one or two required years of service, how many meaningful skills or training could be provided for that? It costs a great deal of money to train people for military service, imagine the cost of many months of training for such a short time of service. Or if they were going to force people to do unskilled jobs, what a waste to people who have the desire or skill and are ready to start on their own careers. There would be so much money spent on make work programs, for young people to get low pay and politicians to get their pet projects completed by other people’s children.
It’s easy to be in favor of something that will never happen. More difficult when you get into the details of how it would actually work or not work, as many others are pointing out. Our military doesn’t want all these people. The public would not want to pay for this. By and large the young people would not be supportive. Constitutional questions. Yada, yada.
“It’s easy to be in favor of something that will never happen. More difficult when you get into the details of how it would actually work or not work, as many others are pointing out. Our military doesn’t want all these people. The public would not want to pay for this. By and large the young people would not be supportive. Constitutional questions. Yada, yada.”
I’m also for reinstating the draft - which is constitutional - for the very same reason I would support mandatory military service. I oppose an all volunteer army.
The public doesn’t want it because “we” want only the lower SES kids to go fight our wars.
Sadly a very large percentage of young men and women are too obese and out of shape to be able to serve in the military; the largest percent at any time in our history. They are too unfit to do the hard miles and carry the heavy packs.
I think there’s not as many lower SES kids as one might think in the military. Many people are not kids, but responsible adults. Plenty of people with college degrees (all officers have them and many enlisted), and varied backgrounds. In fact, the middle and upper middle class are overrepresented in the military. Whites are also slightly overrepresented. The very poorest are underrepresented, as some cannot meet the minimums (high school diploma or GED required), as the very richest are underrepresented.
Many military service members find the concept that they are there because they are poor, uneducated and lack options as insulting. I understand that people mean the best and are not trying to be insulting, but there are all sorts of people in the military for various reasons. Nowadays, it can be rather difficult to even get in, as many are not meeting the requirements of weight, health, education and testing.
US military demographics:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/13/6-facts-about-the-u-s-military-and-its-changing-demographics/
http://www.americaspromise.org/us-military-demographics
http://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2016-Demographics-Report.pdf
Regarding widespread ineligibility to enter US military service:
http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/NATEE1109.pdf
"Whites are also slightly overrepresented. "
Not among enlisted. White are underrepresented and blacks are overrepresented.
I did not break it down, I said “military service”.
And if there are lower numbers of blacks with college degrees than the general population (and I’m not saying there are, I don’t know, but if there are), then it would make sense there would be a higher percentage of black people who are enlisted than officers. Many people join to help to get tuition assistance for college.
And I find the idea of a draft horrifying, particularly when not necessary for the salvation of the country. Fascinating, isn’t it?