We Endorse Mandatory Military Service for America!

(This Post First Ran in March of 2006)
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"Mandatory Military Service for America!" ... by Longstreet
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I was reading the comments on another blogsite recently and noted that someone indorsed mandatory Military service for the US. Those refusing military service would lose their privilege to vote.

I have been thinking about that ever since.

First… there is no constitutional “right” to vote in the US. So there would be no violation of the constitution in depriving one of that privilege.

Now, back to the idea of mandatory military service for Americans. There is much to recommend it.

It is becoming painfully obvious that our youth no longer feel an obligation to repay their country for the all the privileges of living here and enjoying all the benefits Americans enjoy. Couple that with the fact that nobody wants the reinstitution of the draft (including the military) and the increasing frequency of terrorist wars and “brushfire” wars around the globe, and it becomes clear that America needs a larger standing Army than we have now.

Give, or take, a few thousand and we currently have a standing Army of roughly 500,000 men. Given the ratio of support troops to actual combat troops is somewhere on the order of nine support troppers to one combat trooper, you can see we have a dire shortage of actual combat troops. Seems to me we need a sanding Army of at least one million men... sustained. And while we're at it we should increase the size of our Marine Corp to at least 300,000 men, with an untimate goal of a 500,000 man Marine Corp.(Ed's note: This paragraph, in blue, was inserted on January 1st, 2007)

There are only two workable options, as I see it, to solve that problem: a draft, or… mandatory military service. I have come to favor the latter.

Mandatory military service would create an investment in the country, as nothing else will do. When one puts one’s life on the line, for one’s country, one tends to take his, or her, citizenship much more seriously.

The responsibilities of citizenship in this country have suffered greatly since the flower children of the ‘60’s came to power both in our government and in our educational institutions. The love of country has been dampened by their constant promotion of multiculturalism, and inclusivity, and the like.

Like it or not there ARE those among us who do not seek what is best for America. There ARE those among us who would see America tipped from her sole “Superpower” status and relegated to a European style socialist government. Their indoctrination of our youth is nearly complete. We have a generation of young people who seek to take from this country and never feel obligated to give anything back. They have no vested interest in America. They actually believe America is no better than any other country on the globe.

Military duty is, quite likely, the best means to reverse that indoctrination and return those young people, after, say four years of military service, to American society as a contributing member.

So when it comes up in our national legislature, and eventually, it will, I will be a supporter of mandatory military service.

I am old enough to still believe that America is the last, best, hope for the people of this planet. We cannot allow America to perish as a result of suicide.

“Longstreet”