Using the Draft, Perhaps?

I had a very interesting exchange with my brother recently about things in general.  Periodically, as I have mentioned, he'll drop me a thought that could become an article or essay, to see if I agreed with him and his point.

This one was tough.  The notion was whether we should consider revitalizing the draft, and getting gangs, protestors and those depressing NFL kneeling types off the streets.

See what I mean?  There are a lot of facets to such an idea.  First of all, I am not in favor of what had been the traditional military draft up until the early 1970s when it was abandoned as an active source of recruiting for the armed services.  I never liked the idea, because to me it was the confluence of two mutually-exclusive aims.

Stocking the armed services by declaring that every 18-year-old without being in college (or whatever deferment criteria are used) produces an unwilling military such as we had in Vietnam.  Military success depends on cohesion as a team, and I doubt you could find a general officer who served both before and after the end of the draft, who would favor drafting as a means to produce the most effective service.

Get it?  The goal of "stocking the services" means stocking the services with people who will become part of a cohesive, effective military.  You don't make that up by using people who don't want to be serving, with no commitment to country or to their service, let alone to the mission.  That's why I don't support a draft as a recruiting tool; as is seen by the general officer community, it is destructive to its own aims.

That is separate from the notion of "mandatory service", as is done in many countries where everyone, regardless of gender, is required to provide a year or two of service in some manner, which can be other than military.  I have no problem with that part.  Lots of types of support can be performed by people not crazy about mandatory service; it's just that the military should not be one of them.

Then there's the other part, which is how punitive this type of service can become.  NFL kneeling morons are different from gang members, if only because the football players were able to get to the point that someone would pay them for their talents.  The gang types are criminals who need to be punished; the NFL types are simply too stupid to know which side their bread is buttered.  The protestors are ... well, I don't know what they are, since none of them appears to be able to articulate what they're against, as they heave chairs through Starbucks windows.

I will tell you that there is plenty of stuff that needs to get done, particularly in North Dakota in the winter, that I'd be delighted to take people off the street and send them to work on.  Sort of an updated Job Corps, you know.  Get some training in infrastructure repair -- our president knows a fair amount about that and might have some valuable input into creating such a program.

I can't help but think that a lot of young Americans -- all, probably -- would benefit by having put some skin in the game, and having a service-to-the-nation with an option of how to perform it, with the military being but one of them.  As long as the options are not political, I'm good there too.  They can be deferred until after college, or there can be some teaching options where the NEA has not already metastasized, perhaps.

Then there's gender.  If we draft, we'd have to draft females as well, lest the fluid-gender types start rebelling and asking for equal treatment -- or claiming gender fluidity to get out of service if we didn't.  Where is the money going to come from to pay twice as many draftees, when we don't actually need all that manpower?  I'd be fine if the mandatory service included private sector options, but I don't believe that the notion of mandatory service for all means heavy debt to do so.

Smarter people than I can work the details.  I don't want to bring back the draft, for sure; I want the military to be a well-functioning volunteer service as it is now.  But I sure think some of these entitled morons might sing a different tune if they actually had to serve the country whose flag they spit on with their actions.

Lots to think about.

Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
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