AMX wrote:Before me, others had done their service - to protect our society, inculding me.
After me, others are doing their service - to protect our society, including me.
I owed those who had protected me, and those who would later protect me, to do my part, protecting them.
That is only an obligation if you want it to be, really.
Before you decide to smack me, let me rephrase. The idea that you are obligated to return a gift, even one as valuable as freedom, means it's not in fact a gift, given freely. Now, returning that gift of your own volition is quite another thing.
That said, my country practices conscription in a very lax way. Essentially, you can get out of it if you want to, and the military usually only takes those youngsters that are best suited for the job (I was ill during tests and got a 1/9 on Strength, 7/9 on Intelligence, and 5/9 on endurance, but flunked the psychic evaluation. Was a bit pissed at the rejection, but was told the military usually wasn't worth it, despite all those funny stories).
The most healthy thing about our conscription, the way I see it, is that the common man understands how military service works. He (or she, for that matter) doesn't consider the military to be another world. And so the military isn't isolated from the country.
A final note: conscripted armies in no way have to be inferior to regular ones. It's easy enough to create competition between the different corps using basic psychological tricks. KJ (coastal rangers) usually seem more motivated than Rambo (I used the comparison because their hormone level appears roughly similar). And in competitions, swedish infantry groups have acquitted themselves very well against the armed forces of the rest of the world. Maybe it's because at this point, conscription doesn't chafe so much. If you wanted out, you got out early on. Most of those who are in the military didn't try particularly hard to evade draft (all you have to do is to check the little box asking "were you bullied as a child", and boom), and it's a sort of tradition, and a team effort.
In short, it works.
CivilWarMan wrote:
Suppose Bush decides he needs more troops to get Iraq stablized. So he institutes a draft, and you're in the first round picks. While you do have some flexibility as to what you'll be doing over there, it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that you'll end up in Baghdad either way.
To be frank, that would suck irrespective of whether there was draft or not. I mean, as a soldier, would you be able to quit the military after already receiving your orders to ship out? I seem to recall a story about a guy forced to elope to Canada.
Also, in any sensible model, the draftees would be those who had already received training earlier and "done their time" as it were. They'd hardly be your average "never-touched-a-weapon" Joe.
CivilWarMan wrote:From what I hear, trying to renounce a US citizenship is nigh impossible. Something to the effect of you saying you want to leave, and the government gets this puzzled look on their face and says, "Why would you ever want to stop being a US citizen? We're free."
Mmm. Personally, I look upon that sort of arrogance as extremely galling, symptomatic of an insular worldview on part of the government and maybe the entire country. Then, of course, I remember that your country is just so fucking huge that no generalization can really work across the board.
(Even so, I sometimes think voicing the phrase "leader of the free world" should merit swift execution.)
