Mandatory military service is a very tentative subject. You have one side who is all for it and the many benefits it would provide to the men and women of our country. But then you have the side who is highly against as well.
By law, if mandatory military service existed in America, it would most likely be effective immediately for those men and women leaving high school, to join the military for at least two years. Many countries in the world today still force their men, and in some cases women, to go into service. Iran, Greece, Russia, South Korea and Egypt to name a few.
The advantages to having mandatory military service are tremendously good. Citizens would become stronger not only physically, but mentally as well. Our society as a whole would become more interested in world affairs as well, since no one would want to be participating in another war. Most foreign countries wouldn’t want to mess with us either if we have 300 million battle-hardened soldiers.
No country would even think of invading us if every man, woman and child in our nation knew how to fight and react to a real combat situation. It would result in utter chaos for the invaders; everywhere they’d look there would be an enemy.
We’d also come to respect some of the many freedoms and values our country has, since many freedoms are lost when they are put into the service, specifically in boot camp. Many men and women have died to protect those rights, but many of us take them for granted, myself included. We don’t really understand how good we have it.
Drive down the street and you’ll probably pass more Mcdonalds and other fast food restaurants than could be counted on both of your hands. Stores are now digitalizing because we are too lazy to go and get the product we want ourselves, most prefer it delivered in the mail to our doorstep overnight. The benefits of hundreds of years of peace at home are showing brightly.
During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States and rates continue to climb. In 2010, every state in America stated that 20 percent or more of the people were obese. Now, 35.7 percent of adults in the United States are obese and approximately 17 percent of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years are obese. If we all served in the military, these alarming rates would drop very quickly because people would be required to be physically fit for duty.
We’d also come to respect some of the many freedoms and values our country has, since many are lost when we are put into the service, specifically in boot camp. Many men and women have died to protect those rights, but many of us take them for granted, myself included. We don’t really understand how good we have it.
But, having mandatory military service would conflict with the idea that the United States is a country of freedom and that any attempt by the government to force us to give up two years of our lives is un-American. We have the freedom to choose how we want to live and enact our lives, not Congress.
The U.S. does have a draft however, only to be used if we were in a national crisis. A draft held today would use a lottery system under which a man would spend only one year in first priority for the draft. Yet the last time we had one was in 1973 for the Vietnam War. But the military would probably perform a lot better with an all-volunteer force than it would be able to do with a bunch of unhappy draftees. On the battlefield, you want to have someone you can trust and know can get the job done, not an airhead who’d rather be back at home on the couch watching TV. One mistake by a member in one unit could be the end for everyone near him. It’s life or death, not a game.