<p>With the compensation packages the military are receiving today compared to what the Fortune 1000 companies in the private sector are doing to eliminate pensions and cut pay and benefits generally, the services will continue to have no trouble filling their ranks. A draft will not be necessary.</p>
<p>Or like Germany? Or Denmark? Or Finland? Or Austria?</p>
<p>As someone else already pointed out, Germany doesn’t have mandatory service. Males can either elect to spend a year in the military, or spend a year doing community service and I’m sure Denmark, Finland and Austria have similar policies. </p>
<p>I absolutely abhor the argument that we need a draft simply to enforce discipline in our children. Please. Just because you happen to know some ungrateful brats doesn’t mean that every guy who comes of age has to risk his life in the army. Most people don’t have “discipline” problems. In case you’ve forgotten, we’re in the middle of a war and some supposed discipline that we all apparently need isn’t worth the risk of death. </p>
<p>What I also hate is when people say “Everyone should serve their country.”
There are plenty of ways to serve your country. Do some community service, get involved in politics, anything. Military service is merely one (and arguably the least beneficial) way to serve ones country so it baffles me when its the first thing that comes to people’s minds. </p>
<p>End Rant.</p>
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<p>I… I have no words. I really think you need to rethink your statement.</p>
<p>^I don’t think I need to rethink my statement. I didn’t say that military service wasn’t beneficial at all, but it’s definitely not the most beneficial. Instead of joining the military, get involved in community service. Volunteer at an old-folks home, take part in a big brother/sister program, start an organization to raise money for people with diabetes, anything. Do something that helps better America from the inside out as our domestic issues are just as important as our foreign ones. </p>
<p>I respect people who risk their lives in the military, but that still doesn’t mean it’s the most beneficial thing to do. Yes, right now we are in the middle of a war but what happens when the war’s over? There will always be need for people to take interest in the well being of the community, but the importance of the military fluctuates with the times. </p>
<p>What I can’t stand is people like you who are flabbergasted if any one says anything that downplays the military. Newsflash, the military is not this sacred organization that one should never question for fear of burning in eternal hellfire. </p>
<p>So to recap: Is the military important?-Yes. Do I have respect for people who are willing to risk their lives to protect the US?-Of course. Is joining the military the most beneficial thing one can do to serve one’s country/ make America a better place?-Absolutely not.</p>
<p>But you didn’t say that. You said it was the LEAST beneficial. Big difference.</p>
<p>I am not going to attempt to reason with you, it is just going to give me a migraine. I will be going now. I am sure someone else will be along to explain how misguided your reasoning is momentarily.</p>
<p>If I can find some aspirin I might be back later.</p>
<p>But you didn’t say that. You said it was the LEAST beneficial. Big difference.</p>
<p>Least beneficial doesn’t mean completely incompetant. Cornell is often seen as the back door to the ivy league, but it’s still a great institution. Can you understand that analogy. </p>
<p>* I am sure someone else will be along to explain how misguided your reasoning is momentarily.*</p>
<p>Oh yes of course. Because I happen to believe that there are things that can help America more than the military then I must be some misguided oaf who couldn’t talk myself out of a paper bag. </p>
<p>As I’ve stated, the need for community service, philantropy, etc is ever present, the importance of the military changes with the times. Right now we’re in the middle of a war, so it’s pretty important. But in a few years this most likely won’t be the case and the need for the military will go down. </p>
<p>I already said I respect the military and those who choose to join it, but it’s foolish people like you who place it on this magical pedestal that make me shiver on the inside. Sheesh.</p>
<p>Does mandatory/selective service screen out gangsters and mobsters?</p>
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<p>whoa, does that cheapen Cornell or what? =/</p>
<p>lol to the people who think that mandatory service is a good thing.</p>
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<p>it may not be a good thing, but the jury’s still out over whether it isn’t a necessary thing in many countries.</p>
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I’m aware. I also didn’t say it needed to be military. Just some form of service.</p>
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Seriously? You think this is based on anecdotal evidence? One merely needs to look at any number of demographic statistics to indicate this country has had some severe cultural rot over the last 30 years.</p>
<p>screwitlah, mandatory military service is necessary in certain nations like Israel, but hopefully never again in America.</p>
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<p>So what if mandatory military service or any other type of national service would reduce the crime rate? There are many other things that would not be particularly popular or morally sound that we could do to drastically reduce, if not virtually eliminate the crime rate. Compromising one’s civil liberties through mandatory is one of these policies because compulsory military service or national service isn’t particularly demanded by the country. Thus we hold it up to our young males to behave responsibly.</p>
<p>Oh and to Hippo, the military is arguably one of the most effective and laudable forms of national service especially in a nation like ours. Those that serve our country ought to be esteemed in the highest regard. However, military service is arguably the worst type of compulsory national service, especially in a nation like ours.</p>
<p>I think Mr Payne needs to take another look at the motivation behind compulsory military service. Practically speaking, the objective of the draft is simply and purely national defense and security. In today’s context, isn’t that the only justifiable reason for any civilization or nation to have a military to begin with, whether voluntary or mandatory? </p>
<p>Now, just because military service produces a side effect of instilling discipline in young men, he thinks that it should be made into a compulsory national training tool for all sorts of young men, although the military’s primary mission is the grave objective of maintaining national security. Your country already has more than enough men for a viable military that’s so over-manned and over-budgeted for national defense on its own home soil that it can easily afford to invade other countries at the same time. I think you don’t need compulsory military service.</p>
<p>It would also be an extravagant and costly disciplinary tool. Conscripts are obviously not needed to take up military work when you have more than enough volunteers. Conscripts would only eat even more into an already historic budget deficit in exchange for military service that’s not even needed. You want to build entire bases, barracks, buy rifles, uniforms, food, compensate them for the inevitable injuries, and take away hundreds of thousands of man-years of time in the national workforce, JUST so that they could behave a little better? That would be a complete waste of money allocated to national defense but spent towards an entirely different objective. And, after washing your hands clean of the parental job of disciplining your children yourself, you’ll complain when the taxes are raised. It’s never your responsibility or burden, huh?</p>
<p>Oh and to Hippo, the military is arguably one of the most effective and laudable forms of national service especially in a nation like ours. Those that serve our country ought to be esteemed in the highest regard. However, military service is arguably the worst type of compulsory national service, especially in a nation like ours.</p>
<p>I do believe, earnestly, that the military does deserve praise. War veterans and other people who have served in the military do deserve respect. However, I still don’t believe that the military is the most beneficial thing for this country and I don’t believe it’s necessarily deserving of the highest form of praise. And as I’ve said twice already, the importance of the military changes with the times, but there will always be a need for people to give back to the community. The phrase “serving our country” should not be reserved for the military, that is what I take most trouble with. </p>
<p>I agree with you that compulsory military service is the worst kind of compulsory national service.</p>
<p>The purpose of mandatory military service is not to teach discipline-our education system should be doing that. Most if not all countries who have mandatory military service have a country that’s a threat to its welfare right next to them geographically. i.e. South Korea and North Korea, Israel and the middle east.</p>
<p>It would be foolish for any presidential candidate to rule out a draft. If it needs to be done, it needs to be done and its every American citizens civic duty to abide by the social contract in which they agreed to.</p>
<p>In 2004 liberals said Bush would most defiantly issue a draft, but they said this with nothing to back it up. It Didn’t happen. In fact in the 2004 election Kerry was more a proponent of a draft than Bush. Watch the debates and you will see the same story. Kerry was ok for a draft and Bush wanted the military to remain voluntary.</p>
<p>Now McCain and Obama.</p>
<p>Do we not remember H.R. 393. In all honestly Obama doesn’t like Iraq, but he is just as war hungry as McCain. He has stated he would go against Russia to protect Georgia, willing to invade Iran and Pakistan and wants even more troops in Afghanistan. </p>
<p>You people need to wake up, these *******s are the same. They are so similar on so many topics, but folks like you dont wake up and see the similarities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the very polite and utterly non-condescending reply. And what exactly is your last point - that McCain and Obama are equally bad, or that Obama is worst than McCain because they’re equally bad?</p>
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<p>No, it ends up being only a small subset of the American population (18-26 year old males) that “abides by the social contract” they “agreed” to.</p>
<p>I agree with Hippo724 on this one: there are many ways to serve one’s country well. Military doesn’t have a monopoly on it. I don’t think that it’s necessarily the “least beneficial,” but I do think that we need domestic help as much as military help.</p>
<p>When I was graduating, another student going into the military said it was “cowardly” not to serve in the military–that my path, going to a university, is a weak one, because clearly, you can’t help anyone out unless you’re “fighting” for their right to do such things as go to a university.</p>
<p>It also annoys me to learn that certain friends who went into the military are now in Iraq doing more or less nothing–as one told me, they periodically give candy to impoverished Iraqi kids, and other than that and a few other “service” things, they so far have sat around and BSed all day.</p>
<p>To me, working for a non-profit that helps disadvantaged students get into college is much more of a service to the country than what I described above. Believe it or not, not all military service yields a high degree of benefit. Likewise, not all domestic activities yield a high degree of benefit. For a country the size of the US, you’ll need many more people at home than at war, to keep the country running. Otherwise, there’s not much to protect.</p>
<p>Man chill, there ain’t gonna be a draft. After Vietnam, people realized draft is a big no no. Personally, I think that there should be some sort of military service. Not necessarily combat training, even peace corps would suffice. Just going out in the world doing a positive good is what matters, if its for your country excellent!</p>