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Mandatory military service?

Would you support a mandatory service when a person turns 21 or 18?

  • Total voters
    88
peepnklown said:
I have to disagree. A free society is not dependent on foreign wars. A free society is not dependent on continuous wars. A free society is not dependent on an imperialist type military. These types of themes bring a dictatorship.
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If this were true, we'd have become a dictatorship a long time ago. Is this really what you think? :thinking:
 
@ FluffyNinja
Well, Rome didn’t become a full empire over night, so think about that.
 
peepnklown said:
@ FluffyNinja
Well, Rome didn’t become a full empire over night, so think about that.
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So, we're on our way to becoming the next great Imperialist Empire? Hmmm........mkay? :thinking
BTW Rome was a Republic - just saying.
 
@ FluffyNinja
Seriously?
Ancient Rome went through stages: Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire.
America is entering the last stages of the republic, yes.
 
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask, "Where's my gubmint jerb?" :ninja:
 
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peepnklown said:
@ FluffyNinja
Seriously?
Ancient Rome went through stages: Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire.
America is entering the last stages of the republic, yes.
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So, a Republic and an Empire cannot be one and the same or exist simultaneously? Wow, I'm sure your PoliSci and History teachers are quite proud of you at this point. :applaud:
 
ecofarm said:
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask, "Where's my gubmint jerb?" :ninja:
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Was this meant to be some sort of lame jab at my sig line or something? Sadly, you FAIL :lol:
 
No, I don't fail. This massive bureaucratic nightmare of a government handout, specifically a job with training and other benefits for EVERYONE, is antithetic to your sig. You want everyone to get free training and financial security for a number of years and the infrastructure and professional/training personel to handle this herculean task of giving EVERYONE a gumbint jerb. The hilarious part will be when immigrants start taking our jerbs. That will be an outrage. "They're takin' our gubmint jerbs!"

Sigh. To fight handouts and want to serve as everyone's first (training supplying) employer. Just sigh.


Further, the idea that we use people of ~20 years old only shows your disregard for actual, quality service to the nation and lays naked this gargantuan entitlement program for what it is. If you really wanted some kind of service to the nation, you would use people who were 30-40 years old and have some kind of education, experience or discipline to be more useful than a subsidized trainee. It's Big Nanny - Big, Fat, Rolling out of Bed Granny. Stop it.
 
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peepnklown said:
@ FluffyNinja
Seriously?
Ancient Rome went through stages: Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire.
America is entering the last stages of the republic, yes.
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Of course, it depends on whether you are talking about Empire in the classic/political sense (as in an autocratic system ruled by an emperor) or in the geographical/territorial sense (as in the fact that Britain did not cease to be an empire even though it became a constitutional monarchy). Many would argue that the US indeed became an "Empire" following our territorial gains after the Spanish-American war :shrug:
 
FluffyNinja said:
Finally, I really don't want to come across as insensitve here and I have served in a combat zone, so I feel that I can speak with a degree of openness here, but....statistically speaking, you have a greater chance of being injured or killed by simply getting in a car and driving on a public highway, than you do serving on Active Duty in the military. Take the avg number of drivers on our highways each day and look at the percentage injured or killed in auto related accidents, then take the number of active duty military and look at the percentage of these injured or killed in combat daily and you'll see. :shrug:
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I served in a combat zone and your point is well taken. In VN most of us were drafted and knew the risks in advance and also the alternatives to avoid them. I don't remember anyone in my unit who wanted to be there but we did our jobs and as expected and received the respect of our peers for it. Don't get me wrong... there were a few who either couldn't take it or else chose not too. From what I understand they were given a 212 "undesirable" discharge and were gone pretty quick. So even if you're drafted... it doesn't mean you are forced into combat.
 
Obamanator said:
I served in a combat zone and your point is well taken. In VN most of us were drafted and knew the risks in advance and also the alternatives to avoid them. I don't remember anyone in my unit who wanted to be there but we did our jobs and as expected and received the respect of our peers for it. Don't get me wrong... there were a few who either couldn't take it or else chose not too. From what I understand they were given a 212 "undesirable" discharge and were gone pretty quick. So even if you're drafted... it doesn't mean you are forced into combat.
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Thank you for your service - I mean that. I never really appreciated my own Dad's service in Nam til I was much older. It just really gets under my skin when some of these Left-Wingers reciting talking points, attempt to equate military service to a form of slavery, or to an automatic death sentence :shrug: As I stated before, I never saw myself as a slave and my father, who was drafted and served 25 years, certainly didn't see it that way.
 
FluffyNinja said:
Thank you for your service - I mean that. I never really appreciated my own Dad's service in Nam til I was much older. It just really gets under my skin when some of these Left-Wingers
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Turtledude, Phattonez, and I are certainly not left wingers

FluffyNinja said:
reciting talking points, attempt to equate military service to a form of slavery, or to an automatic death sentence :shrug: As I stated before, I never saw myself as a slave and my father, who was drafted and served 25 years, certainly didn't see it that way.
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No one's denying that it's honorable to serve, conscripted or not. We're just saying that it's morally wrong, on the government's part, to put you into a job without your choosing and force you to do it. This especially applies to front line duty.
 
DrunkenAsparagus said:
Turtledude, Phattonez, and I are certainly not left wingers
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Who said I was referring to you in particular? Defensive are we?



No one's denying that it's honorable to serve, conscripted or not. We're just saying that it's morally wrong, on the government's part, to put you into a job without your choosing and force you to do it. This especially applies to front line duty.
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Are you also saying that it is a form of slavery? If not, then I'm not really taling about your views. You're certainly entitled to your own opinions regarding morality, but when one places a label such as "slavery" on a certain institution, I must bring into question whether or not said institution actually fits the legal description of slavery.
 
Whatever mess we are in, we are all in it together. Those who avoid their responsibilities to their country but at he same time want to enjoy its bounty are slackers. Pure and simple....
 
DrunkenAsparagus said:
Turtledude, Phattonez, and I are certainly not left wingers



No one's denying that it's honorable to serve, conscripted or not. We're just saying that it's morally wrong, on the government's part, to put you into a job without your choosing and force you to do it. This especially applies to front line duty.
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kinda like the government forcing you to pay taxes, or telling you what you can or cannot do on your own property because there is some endangered fungus growing on a rock in your backyard...
 
OscarB63 said:
kinda like the government forcing you to pay taxes, or telling you what you can or cannot do on your own property because there is some endangered fungus growing on a rock in your backyard...
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hope that athletes foot fungus does not become protected....:2razz:
 
One or the other, civil or military, whatever the man can do best....or a combo....thats me....4 years of military - hated the mindlessness.., despised the regimentation...
The discipline is important, and few know what it really is...
I voted "rootabego".
 
UtahBill said:
Good points....I still maintain that we should have put the blame of 9/11 on Saudi Arabia, and presented them with a bill for replacing the Twin Towers, plus another bill for compensation to the families who lost loved ones or otherwise suffered from the event. If they don't pay up, we "deliver" a few cruise missiles in the middle of the night, every night, until they fess up and pay up.
Excellent points
OBL was(at one time) a Saudi citizen.
Doing business with the oil rich Arabs is all too similar with dealing with prohibition era gangsters.



The Iraq war was purely revenge being exacted by the shrub. Had little to nothing to do with 9/11, except maybe to satisfy some blood lust.
Iraq was made to pay for the sins of the Saudis.
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Excellent points
OBL was(at one time) a Saudi citizen.
Doing business with the oil rich Arabs is all too similar with dealing with prohibition era gangsters.
 
repeter said:
ReverendHellh0und said:
absolutley not. The last thing I would have wanted would be some d00d who didn't want to be there laying down cover fire for me....
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They might not want to be there in the beginning, but don't you think their attitude would change by the end of training?
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It's not worth putting the lives of those who chose to be there at risk while waiting for draftees to change their minds.

I'm not saying every draftee would not change - some obviously would and have - but no way would I have gotten into a fox hole or trusted the cover from someone who didn't agree or volunteer to serve. I'm going to make a guess that AWOL rates among draftee forces are way higher (proportionately) than among volunteer forces.

I could be wrong - but I doubt it.
 
I think it should be mandatory for the last two years of high school. It wouldn't work though the current military drills people into oblivion. Maybe if it were like Sweden's or something.
 
The 13th Ammendment prohibits involuntary enslavement. I believe that should be applied to all areas of government policies, as well as they can be.
 
Saboteur said:
I think it should be mandatory for the last two years of high school. It wouldn't work though the current military drills people into oblivion.
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people who don't know jack **** about the military really shouldn't talk about the military. it makes them look ignorant
 
Saboteur said:
I think it should be mandatory for the last two years of high school. It wouldn't work though the current military drills people into oblivion. Maybe if it were like Sweden's or something.
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What does this mean, and how did you arrive at this conclusion.
 
I would classify enacting a mandatory period of service to the state as aggressively authoritarian in nature. Perhaps a mandatory number of weeks of private, non-profit volunteer work would be better?
 
ARealConservative said:
it isn't a free country. not even close.

It once was, but not in my lifetime. ....Maybe on the very short term... a day or so..

Right now we are so heavily regulated it is ridiculous.
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And we need to be much more so....at least until we have a better people.
Read the transcripts of any township meeting...or any school board
When all of mankind is "perfect", then "free" may exist....
 
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