With current job market every year is precious.
Waste months to be less effective than average/mediocre proffesional soldier?
not just that
the votes of young people within the conscription range should be the only ones that count. Old people with no skin in the game will happily vote yes (e.g. in french polls.)
As someone who's been enlisted for 4 years I'd rather the government not get an excuse to cut my pay further, thanks.
Not military service, but rather state militia, with good candidates being put into the standard army for greater training. Downsize our military, but increase the rapid response by having a trained militia/logistics force.
You weren't fat and anti-social enough. Source: C-paperit.
sometimes i just love your posts my man
You'd figure people would understand that when I say state militia, I mean the US National Guard.
The only advantage of a draft in terms of a public good as far as I can see it is that it is far harder for a state to wage an unpopular/illegal war when it has the potential to effect the majority of the public, unlike an all volunteer force which can be distinct enough from the general population to allow for an 'out of sight and out of mind' mentality. As far as I am aware this was the primary motivator for the US transitioning to a volunteer force after the Vietnam war, so the government could more effectively wage war without general democratic accountability. In that regard I think you could argue that a draft/mandatory service might result in the killing of less foreigners.
Personally I thought you genuinely meant a militia. You should just say National Guard.
I feel like we should still have some lower form of training, at the very least mandatory gun safety with imitation guns
I have crippling depression would I be still eligible for drafting
Yeah, probably would help. Either way, I think people should do at least six months or one year with their state National Guard. Have it so they cannot be deployed outside of their state during that time, and after their term ends, they'll be on reserve for emergencies.
National Guard is usually around during natural disasters, and helping setup emergency centers, so having a wider base of people that can be called up too help would be a blessing.
Another thing which could be done is the adoption of the Swiss model. Small standing force for specialized roles, but have a large citizen reserve that is trained in guerilla warfare and can be mobilized.
I like both ideas but it's going to be really hard to convince people to put off college for x amount of months/years
This. I was nearly about to sign the dotted line and enlist in the National Guard but I felt I would have a better opportunity with my career path (software engineer) with a college education. I didn't want to put off college until all of my basic training and AIT was done.
If people want to waste their time with the National Guard they can sign up for it out of their own volition.
Whether you end up doing any fighting or not is completely irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. The fact of the matter is that it's still denying a full grown adult their personal autonomy and forcing them to do labor for the government.
This.
Speaking from experience, mandatory service can range from actual public service (a thing you can easily do yourself if so inclined) and borderline sisyphean slave labor for meager pay. It can be (and in many cases is) a very degrading experience where you are treated as merely a tool by a large assortment of commanders and officers who couldn't give less of a fuck about your wellbeing if it conflicts their ambitions to move up the command chain - and in the rare cases you find commanders who actually do care, they could be actively hindered by the very system in place from helping you without sacrificing a bit of their own wellbeing. This kind of thing is of course rarer in combat roles as there is an actual incentive for the personal commander to get on the good side of those he commands, but in conscription the majority will not be seeing these kind of roles, especially if evolved from a previously non-conscript army.
It's hard to feel any kind of pride for anything you do outside of your own volition when you know full well your manpower is wasted on arbitrary work in a job created specifically to accommodate for the absurdly high number of newly-joined conscripts, and because of the wonders of military bureaucracy and terrible administration people who could do wonders with their own individual capabilities and will to help will get forcibly pushed through holes they very clearly do not fit in, and people who already had no enthusiasm to help to begin with will be even further discouraged to do so when they're aware they could be outside of the army actually having some semblance of control over their somewhat meager life.
Our government is not responsible enough with using the military for there to be mandatory service.
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