Mandatory military service in the US

[OuterTsuchinoko]

I think it would be a good idea to have mandatory military service. There are so many young men and women who don't really know their way in life and military can help them a lot in becoming a self sufficient adult. Like stated above you can choose your path and doesn't necessarily mean you are being sent out to potentially die for reasons you may not agree with. I also see why people are against it though, being forced to do anything you don't want to isn't a good feeling, especially something as huge as military service. I always wanted to go into the military myself and tried, but was told with my condition that there is no waiver for it so I am unable to.

 

[Livewire]

I would rather enact a system where if you put in 2-3 years of service in the Military, National Guard, Peace Corps, etc., your college education would be paid for as a more appropriate way of incentivizing civic and military service. I don't support conscription unless absolutely necessary (a WWII type scenario) where there's a severe, tangible threat to national security. As for the Selective Service, It should be amended to reflect modern realities, and either include women or be done away with entirely.

 

[RegalSin]

Well that is some womanist propaganda I am reading here. If that is so then all people of all religions and races should be carted off to join the military. Join the military and if you survive the tremendous waste of time for something your parents should have been doing. Then you get to collect some benefits.

What I hate most is when a college student ( like my cousin ) joins the military and then feels he is better then everybody or a better man bs. Like my sex starved classmate in college had no money, no car, and was getting old. So he just became a security guard. Now he feels he is special or "Da man".

When is the last time you saw a bunch of othodox Jews in military? Yet they have nice houses and live like if it is 1920's. All this gentile bs is being thrown on to everybody else and makes it look good to waste your life. Military is not bad but have tons of rotten people with low-minded way of thinking.

My advice is stay on the boat or whatever and do not interact with locals unless you know somebody or want to go to a certain place. Idiot who knocked up my cousin went ashore and got into a fight and it was blamed on him. Lost his job and his rank.

 

[Midnight shadow]

I think a lot of people are under the impression that conscription means being carted off to the front lines as soon as you get enrolled, which simply isn't true. I've spent a lot of time in Turkey where they have conscription and it's nothing like that. If anything, it's the reverse, where they complete their basic training and then get shipped off to guard some random outpost in the middle of nowhere.

Now, here's how I feel about military service. In the UK there are tons of 15-16 year olds who drop out of school and then spend the next 3+ years living in their parent's house doing nothing but leech money off them. Those are the type of people I believe should be drafted into the military. I believe that once someone hits 16, they should be given a choice:

1. Get a job/apprenticeship
2. Go onto higher education (i.e. university)
3. Join the military

That way they will be contributing to society instead of spending all their time at home leeching off their parents.

 

[gimmepie]

Snip

You know a lot of the people who are "leeching off their parents" are actually looking for work or studying right? Or have another valid reason for doing so such a health issues or a disability. Not everyone who needs to rely on their parents outside of school is a bum.

 

[Ivysaur]

I honestly think that forcing everybody to join the military for a year, regardless of their interests, education and physical condition, is a waste of time. By 18, I had zero desire to join the army, a terrible physical condition I had mantained throughout all my teen ages and enough grades to sign up at any university I wished to. Being forced to join the army would have meant a wasted year in my life which I did use for far better things (signing up for two degrees)- and I know many people who were still forced to do so until 2002 (Spain) and who didn't really care about it in the slightest. I think it should be encouraged for people who are without a direction and might be interested in this sort of career, but in no way forced, and much less for everybody.

There are people who are good for some things and people who are good at some others. This makes as much sense as forcing everybody to spend one year at a plot of land in some random town in the country cultivating food or taking care of cattle. Yeah, it's a necessary job to keep the country running, and it does teach you the value of sweat and effort, but... is it necessary for everybody to learn to do it at this point in time? The wonders of technology mean that you can keep an extremely efficient and deadly military running with less people than ever before and produce enough food with minimal labour. In turn, you get lots of people free to do other things that are also important for society. And I'm glad we have moved from a Modern-Age vision of society to a more Contemporary one.

 

[Midnight shadow]

You know a lot of the people who are "leeching off their parents" are actually looking for work or studying right? Or have another valid reason for doing so such a health issues or a disability. Not everyone who needs to rely on their parents outside of school is a bum.

There will be exceptions to everything, however the list of exceptions you have given fills a minority of people. There are also a ton of people who are "looking for work" in the very loosest sense possible (I used to be one of them).

 

[gimmepie]

There will be exceptions to everything, however the list of exceptions you have given fills a minority of people. There are also a ton of people who are "looking for work" in the very loosest sense possible (I used to be one of them).

I would love to see some actual statistics here because I'm quite confident you're vastly underestimating the number of people with legitimate reason for being unemployed. I'll take a look for some myself in a bit but you should have a look too.

 

[Midnight shadow]

I would love to see some actual statistics here because I'm quite confident you're vastly underestimating the number of people with legitimate reason for being unemployed. I'll take a look for some myself in a bit but you should have a look too.

There's a difference between being unemployed and dropping out of school to do nothing. In this, I am purely looking at 15-16 year olds who do their GCSEs and then drop out because they don't want to study. In terms of statistics, in 2012 roughly 1/5 of 16 year olds dropped out of school. Now, if we take a look at the law, it says the following:

You can leave school on the last Friday in June if you'll be 16 by the end of the summer holidays.

You must then do one of the following until you're 18:

stay in full-time education, eg at a college
start an apprenticeship or traineeship
work or volunteer (for 20 hours or more a week) while in part-time education or training

There are many youngsters who fall through the cracks as it were and leave full-time education without a clear goal or any idea of what to do next. They don't want to study full time so quit and then sit around at home doing nothing. The military would give them a focus and an opportunity to see what they want to do with their lives. And yes, I know if you are looking for a job it can take time, which is why I would suggest a ley-way period of 6-12 months after the person drops out of school. After that time, they would need to either be in full-time education, have a job or join the military.

Not only does this get more young people out of the homes and off the streets, but it gives them a purpose, a chance of education and making a career, plus gives them something positive to put on their CV (resume) when they are looking for jobs later.