Some not so random thoughts for the day

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We were going back in our email archives looking for a particular transmission when we ran across the following. It was in response to a loved one who thought we should bring back the draft. Oddly enough and completely anecdotally, we’ve found the strongest support for bringing back the draft to be among those that were subjected to it and/or served in this nation’s military.

Here’s our view of things 6 years ago in our pre-blogging days which still hold true and which we also invite you to share your thoughts on the matter in the comment section:

Draft? Bad idea. I don't want to be in a foxhole with someone who doesn't want to be there. What? 18 yr. old kids don't know what they want to do with their lives? What's new? This hasn't changed since Moses was a mess cook. Also, this takes an arrow out of the quiver of the anti-war set. The bitch about Vietnam was that it was taking 18 yr. old kids right out of their homes and throwing them into the jungle without them ever asking to be. In a modern society, that point has some legitimacy.

Today's all-volunteer armed forces are populated by people that are fully cognizant they may be asked to fight in a war that they may not necessarily believe in. They know this the moment they sign up. This eliminates any sort of "moral dilemma" that should otherwise not be part of the equation in determining whether or not we are going overseas to kick someone's ass.

Also, you will run into the same problems where the poor kids both black, white and Hispanic will be disproportionately represented while the rich and middle-class kids will be commuted because they are at college. Whether this indeed will be the case, the draft will be generalized as such and that is not the image our nation's military should have.

Finally, the most effective military fighting force this planet has ever seen resides in our country's armed forces which is fully voluntary. The correlation between those two facts is not coincidental. We have a motivated and dedicated group of people in our military that all, generally speaking, want to be there - why mess with what truly works. It appears that re-introducing the draft is a solution in search of a problem.

Again, your thoughts on the matter are appreciated. Thanks.

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Video of clip of the day

From Sparta to SEAL Team 6...

Glenn Reynolds sits down with author Steven Pressfield to talk about his new book, The Warrior Ethos:

I do see life as a sort of a conflict... and I think the metaphor of war stories and stories of conflict keep resonating through whatever I do.

I have a little bit of a dark view of contemporary America society and where were going with our various institutions that are supposedly taking care of business but the one institution that is doing great, I think, is the military. And that's where I see people with the most spirit, the most passion and even the most vision.

In order to bring some "institutional balance" back to American society as well as getting back to the citizen-soldier concept vs. the current professional soldier concept, Pressfield is in favor of bringing back the draft or something similar. We're not too sure about that.

People whose opinions we greatly respect, believe as Pressfield does, that perhaps society would be greatly improved if its citizenry was infused with that warrior ethos via a mandatory two-year hitch in the military.

We're of the mind that if we're depending on the military to teach us how to be better citizens, then perhaps we have greater structural problems than we realize.

Feel free to discuss in the comment section.

Just a reminder...

....still time to vote on our poll in the right hand margin regarding the military draft and mandatory civilian service. Backround reading, here.

Just a reminder...

... to vote on our poll in the right hand margin and which was subject to a post on the draft and civilian service, here.

Whether you like it or not?

A few years back, Chuck Rangel was calling for a re-instatement of the draft. This was pre-surge Iraq where Rangel’s motives were appallingly transparent. Recall the meme at the time was that the because of the economy, the poor were “forced” to seek employment in the military and Rangel’s draft was his noble attempt to, you know, balance things out by having those rich kids serve alongside those poor minority kids. Of course, drafts don’t work that way and “rich white kids” will go to college and get deferrals leaving the very poor people Rangel claims to champion as his “human shields”.

We also saw through the long range motive of Rangel’s human shield program as a way to take all future U.S. military action off the table with the justification that “sending troops to “X” will be borne disproportionately on the backs of the poor and minorities because of the draft.”

We knew at the time that Rangel was grandstanding as he knew and we knew that a draft didn’t stand an ice cube’s chance in hell of becoming reality so there would be no actual political consequence to his hair-brained scheme. Well, that was then and this is now.

Check out some of the language of recently-introduced H.R. 1444

"Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds."

Think one big nationwide summer camp jamberoo for 19 yr. olds. And precisely what civic challenges are to be overcome? And given the context, we don’t have a clue as to what “strengthening the social fabric of the Nation” means. Will there be a quilting bee regiment?

We’re highly dubious and skeptical of either a draft or this hyper-inflated Americorps concept. We won’t get into all the reasons why because that would be an awfully long post and besides, we want to hear what you think in both the comments and in the poll on the right hand margin. Let’er rip!

P.S. We’ve quite a few friends, family and co-workers who’ve served in the military and we were surprised on numerous occasions by their response to this question, particularly by those that had served in Vietnam.