As an Officer in the military, I'm not a fan of the idea of compulsory military service. Yes we're stretched thin but better to be stretched thin with quality people, than with a bunch of conscripts. The only scenario where a draft would be socially (and politically) acceptable would be in a "declared war" against another nation state with the ability to beat us. (Example: World War II) Odds are we won't fight a war on that scale again for a long time. It's better for the country and the military to stay all volunteer for the foreseeable future.

I do however support the idea of some form of national service. I am firm believer that everyone should “serve”. How they serve should be left up to them as individuals. If carrying a rifle isn't what some 19 year old right out of high school wants to do, so be it. Thier will never be a shortage, unpopular wars or not, of Americans willing to fight for this nation. That fact is one of the many strengths of this country. That individual can plant trees in an inner city neighborhood or rebuild home in New Orleans, for a few years. Two to three years of selfless service never hurt anyone. The college parties will still be there. Those individuals will be more mature well rounded adults, that in turn will provide an overall benefit to society.

Will this 2-3 year volunteer service be in additon to working a 40-50 hour week or as a single Mom will I still be supporting the volunteer another 2-3 years before my child can start college or get a job and support him/herslef?

Wow, thats a utopian view, do you actually think the freeloaders and rich kids of this nation would do anything to support the nation that gives them more than any other nation on earth. Forget it man, only the poor kids or the lower class fringe kids who cant go to college or get decent jobs will be signing up. I wud rather fight beside some with a drug free brain than a goof ball person who doesnt give a damn about the soldier next to them.

Hear! Hear! I totally agree. I think National Service for a period of two years should be compulsory for ALL high school graduates. We had the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and those (mostly) men built roads and bridges, staffed hospitals in rural areas, worked as teaching assistants and aided the poor. I think it should be managed the same way the military is managed, providing housing and health care and educational opportunities as well as some sort of financial compensation. I think it would be good for America, and I think it would be good for the individual young people involved. Yes, the funding would come from the tax payers, but the rewards would be tremendous.

I am pro-draft and leftwing. And here is why I think we need the draft to win this one. My arguments are both strategic, and economic. Based on evidence, total victory in total war requires the draft: it is what won WWII and few people would stand up and say that all those civilians were trash that shouldn't have been in the military. Our all-volunteer force, six years later, has still not achieved its goals. They are exhausted, frustrated, and know support dwindles away by the day. If the threats the US faces, and the world, is as severe as we are led to believe, then all of us have a duty to vanquish those threats.

Now the economics. You can dumb draft, and smart draft. A dumb draft would just randomly select youths and throw them into front-line combat roles irrrespective of their ability. A smart draft would instead make service compulsory, but where you serve and how you serve very felxible and based on a marriage between talent and military need. This approach, if applied well (like in WWII) would not damage the economy and would be like a jolt of adrenaline to all the military's missions and obligations.

As we know, cyber warfare is a big part of al Qaeda's methods. Combat geeks could take care of them. Ilegal finance transfers? I know a few MBA types who will be looking for work shortly. Courts blocked up, and all those Gitmo boys looking for fair and due process, law students would do the trick. Borders looser than a New Orleans streetwalker? Pack em with lots and lots of ivy leagure students. In short, we need eyes and ears and bodies thick on the ground all over the place to defeat the enemy. And you can only do that with a draft.

On another note, I don't actually trust volunteer force officers who seem to be more interested in protecting their elite fantasies than what is need to win. The 'few, the proud' are these day 'the exhausted, the frustrated'.

It is now criminal to allow this conflict to drag on for another fruitless, bloody six years with no result. It doesn't speak well of our generation that we can't vanquish an enemy far weaker than Hitler's Germany or Imperial Japan.

Your child would of course be paid for service to the nation. The same way a private in the Army is paid for his. If he was smart he would save as much of that money for college as possible. Guess I didn't make that clear in my original post.

what do you call the nurses and doctors that work at the hospitals that cater to the lower income people? Policemen, fire fighters, paramedics, attornies who work for low wages to represent the poeple who cant afford to be represented, social workers, teachers, people that work at religious institutions, and all the others out there that serve society either directly out of highschool, or directly out of college? are we supposed to deplete that worforce so that they can serve our nation, while we have the crazy left wing democrats raise taxes and sit on gold plated toilet seats.

this would be a great mistake. yes there are people out there that are a drain on society and government spending, but most of them pay taxes, and what the government decides to do with that money, is up to the "elected officials". Our contry was built on a volunteer military and should remain that way.

To say that we will never have a shortage of militrary personal would be a prediction of the far future. as far as i know, no one can predict the future. they can guess but that is not good enough when dealing with peoples lives. so right now we should stick with what works and not become a socialist dictatorship.

like the women said above, what is the stay at home mother with kids supposed to do when she is drafted to service? come on and think beyond the end of your own nose.

While it's good to know that "the left" actually wants to win. I have to take issue with being called a career officer protecting an elitist fantasy. First of all, I'm the one that's here. I could just as easily resign my commission and take my various degrees else where but by choice I'm here.

The average enlisted man, despite popular belief, can go off and do other things in life. He's not some "dead ender" who ended up at the recruiters office after failing at everything else. And having had the privilege of leading some those "exhausted and frustrated" volunteers in combat, I can tell you quite honestly, that victory as you define it is not easy to achieve. This isn't 1945...and we're not island hopping through the pacific. If you look historically at all nation building and counter-insurgency operations they take years, sometimes decades. It took the British 15 years to stabilize Malaysia.

Modern war (in the information age) is not some simplistic affair where two opposing armies line up against each other and slug it out! If it were that easy we would have won by now. I hope your views toward the military are not representative of the average liberal/leftist in this country. That sir, would be a shame.

"Service" is a very broad term...if someone wants to be a fireman...that's service to the community....if someone wants to be a nurse that's service to the community...a National Service program if run correctly could be potentialy boundless. Serving the needs of the community while opening doors and broadening the perspectives of young people. The same way the all volunteer military has been doing now since the early 1970's.

Service would not be based on race or economic background. Everyone for at least 2 years of thier lives (primarily after high school) would be "equal" in thier service to the nation. And yes (again) they would be paid for the work!

Why does the idea of giving back to a nation that provides so much and asks so little in return such a touchy idea? The average American as it stands right now can go through life doing nothing for anyone but themselves except pay taxes. And we wonder why we have such a narcisitic society. This argument is exactly why a draft in today's society would never work. People don't like the idea of civilian service let alone being forced into the military.

Again I ask, is two years of self-less service is too much to ask an American teenager? If the answer is yes we have bigger problems than the war on terror.

AAW:

... Yes we're stretched thin but better to be stretched thin with quality people, than with a bunch of conscripts...

So any talk of the military having difficulty retaining qualified, experienced personnel is poppycock?

You sound like a bunch of union guys trying to keep a closed shop. Only this time, the closed shop is burning you out. Is it not time to get more fresh blood into the effort and really win it? This talk about how pathetic most Americans are doesn't speak well of the country, and makes me want the draft even more for its character-building qualities.

Compulsory National Service right out of high school seems to me to be a terrible idea, for several reasons.

First of all, many of these kids are planning to go onto college, and it is not a good idea for them to have such a gap between their secondary and higher education. Many students who take time off from their educations never go back, or have a tough time getting back into the swing of things when they do. Most people I've known who have taken years off before completing university have had a lot of trouble getting their degrees (and some never did). There are a lot of skills and knowledge that kids carry over from their high school years, and they run the risk of forgetting these things if they take time off.

Second, forcing people to work for under-market wages goes against the entire idea of a free market economy. Conscripted labor will artificially depress wages in whatever jobs these kids take.

Third, the idea that kids need to participate in service to make them better people is one that hasn't yet been proven. How do you know that 2-3 years of forced labor will make young adults more mature and better rounded?

Fourth, there are programs that already give kids these opportunities, such as the Peace Corps, Americorps, and Teach for America. These programs turn away volunteers every year. Why not expand these programs and see the impact on the country before forcing everyone to participate? Maybe just as you don't want to see unqualified people in the military, service programs don't want them either. Do you really want someone who couldn't pass the ASVAB to build your house??

Last, the idea that teens should be forced to "volunteer" for their country completely ignores the fact that many teens are already volunteering time to plant trees, build houses, tutor children, and do many other things for the community. Kids today volunteer more hours than any generation before them.

Let's support today's kids and teach them good citizenship, instead of taking away their personal freedoms. This country was founded on principles of personal freedom, and we should not undermine that message by conscripting young people into any type of forced labor.

Sorry, I should have included this in the last post.

I also find the implication that kids go to university for the "college parties" very insulting to all of the kids who are working hard for their educations. I've worked with high schoolers for about 8 years now, and the kids I've seen have been very intent on getting into the best universities that they can. They know that a university education will open up opportunities for them and have been very appreciative of any help that I could give them.

I've also worked with kids who were trying to get into the army, and couldn't get their ASVAB scores high enough. These kids were also very kind and appreciative of my help. Unfortunately, most of them were barely literate (high school graduates) and there was not much that I could do for them, since I am not a reading expert.

I think that in order to get more mature and well rounded adults, we'd do better to work on the education system and not introduce a system of forced labor.

Not to make light of the current situation but retention has always been difficult. Retaining quality people in the service is hard because "quality people" can off and do other things in life, that pay more money and are well...safer. The benefits of "staying in" are less tangible than those in the private sector. Back in the go-go 90's when the econonimc boom was on, it was hard to get people in and hard to keep them once they joined.

So yes it's a challenge now more than ever. The Marine Corps is predicting that it will meet it's retention goals for the Fiscal Year. I don't know about the other services. The Marine Corps has some advantages in it's relatively small size and the types of individual that join the Corps.

AAW:

Not to make light of the current situation but retention has always been difficult. Retaining quality people in the service is hard because "quality people" can off and do other things in life, that pay more money and are well...safer. The benefits of "staying in" are less tangible than those in the private sector.

Sir, I believe that you have metaphorically dodged a bullet. A useful skill for anyone but indispensable to an officer. By the way I was much safer supervising first term soldiers on the night shift and getting mortared on a regular basis in Iraq which at least provided a paycheck than I have been in the 18 months of unemployment back home since I got out. Life is much more simple and equality more achievable when everyone is in the same boat so to speak.