Universal Military Training and Service Act

U

USP45

New member
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

Congress considers
new kind of draft
Legislation would require military training of all young men

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


By Jon Dougherty
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com


A bill before the House Armed Services Committee would require the induction of young men into the military "to receive basic military training and education for a period of up to one year," according to a summary of the measure.

The bill, called the "Universal Military Training and Service Act," introduced last fall, was sponsored by Reps. Nick Smith, R-Mich., and Curt Weldon, R-Pa. If passed, it would require all males 18-22 to "receive basic military training and education as a member of the armed forces," unless otherwise exempted under provisions of the measure.


see the rest here:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26197



~USP
 
I'd like to see it with conditions.

First you have to build up the education of Constitutional law and theory in the regular military.

2. Make it open to all, not just the guys. Have problems with that? Then for things like direct combat roles, specialized communities and such have one set of aptitude and physical tests, no breaks for gender, ethnicity, and such.

3. The issue battle rifle goes home with its owner, no exceptions.

The problem I see here is its one more weasel hole for some unscrupulous politician to say "look guys, there's your Constitutional Militia." Bam, no more 2A at all.
 
Can't see myself supporting this one, unless the actual bill is significantly different than what WND reported (which I seriously doubt). It's anti-freedom in nature, and, as mentioned, it would potentially lay the groundwork for disarming the rest of us by applying the term "militia" to those young men who are conscripted.

This is NOT a good idea, IMO.
 
On the surface it looks like a good idea. Some very good points have already been raised. This is worth watching very closely although in the long run I don't think it will ever become law.
 
Downside: I'm not a big fan of involuntary servitude, even when wrapped in red, white, and blue bunting.

Upside: We'd resume exporting large quantities of ideologically-addled young slackers to Canada.

;)
 
The main question is: does the US Govt. have a right to require an involuntary service of ANY kind? To most people, having to take time away from families, businesses and home would be a disaster. Further, folks of my background get VERY edgy when ordered to "report to such and such a place, unarmed" by anyone, for any reason.

Being trained in the ways of fighting is good and useful. Making the good and useful skill mandatory is not, IMHO, a good idea. Same with every other type of training or socially useful activity. Free will is a very dear concept to me and one of the defining aspects of American life.
 
Nice idea and wishfull thinking. Only if we lived in a homogeneous society, like Norway or Switzerland.

A compulsary service act should be in place with either a choice of either a Peace Corps type organization, or the military. One of the benefits of being an American is having choices. Having several choices of service would be better than only one direction. Could you think of logistical strain that would but the military under?

Compulsary service would do many good, but, before that goes into effect, our education system would need an upgrade first.
 
I'm all for it, but require all men and women to serve. Any non-military service exception such as the peace corps must be a true hardship tour , open to a strict minority of people and then only to fill a slot in an area the organization has trouble filling through normal means.
Some might consider it "servitude". I would consider it a requirement . I'm tired of the types of people who criticize the military, police, etc, but have no personal frame of reference from which to make a judgement.
 
Screw making it mandatory, because I don't want to have to deal with the sick, the lame and the crazy that would be drafted. Plus the rich and the connected would find their way to escape. I would much rather introduce something like the Heinlein model, where only those who have served get to vote. Or perhaps run for Federal office. Either way, you don't get the bennies, without putting in the time and effort. Semper Fidelis...Ken M
 
I think it is a bunch of crap. I've had this argument with another TFLer once upon a time, and it eventually degenerated into a locked thread.

I am against the draft. I think it is morally wrong. I think it is unconstitutional. The govt. has the ability to provide for the national defense, but to me national defense means just that. Defense. So if we are being invaded, then I have no problem. Other than that I think it is wrong. We have professional and volunteer soldiers, people who WANT to be in the military. Let them do the job. Heck we don't even pay them enough and some certain administrations have treated our military like trash.

So if we fill the ranks with unwilling draftees, then I'm sure the quality and professionalism of our military will go down the tubes. Do you think the rampant drug abuse in the military during the '60s & '70s was being done by the professional volunteer soldiers or the draftees who really didn't want to be there. And that just isn't my opnion, ask Colin Powell.

And if will swelled the ranks with all of these extra soldiers, what are we going to do with them? I'm sure under Clinton we would have stationed them in every third world hell hole you can think of, with no discernable purpose, other than to be randomly sniped at.

Invaribly whenever this topic comes up on TFL the proponets always say something like "It will build character." "Young people need this nowadays" "Military service made a man out of me." Well you know what, there are plenty of ways to build character, and what worked for you may not be what works best for the next guy. Besides, shouldn't it be his choice?

Why should our young people be forced to give up several productive years of their life? The proponents of mandatory service always say that they will be better off for it. I managed to accomplish a lot between 18-22 years of age, on my own thank you very much.

This is the land of personal freedom not involuntary servitude.

And for those of you who want to not only inflict this on your sons, but also your daughters?!? Why? What possible reason could you have for this? Is it some sort of PC equality mumbo jumbo? I'm not talking about the issue of women in the military, I'm talking about taking an 18 year old girl and forcing her to do something against her will. How the hell is that supposed to benefit society?!

And for the argument of forcing people to be in the military so they will understand and not make fun of the military or the police, that is absurd. There are plenty of TFLers who know me personally and know my background, they know that I have nothing but respect for cops and soldiers. But you live in a country that has the first amendment, just as important as our personal favorite amendment, and that means that people can publically say what their opinions are. Regardless of wheter or not they agree with or understand your position. So does this mean that I'm wrong to dislike some of the activities of the ATF because I just don't "understand"?

I get a little worked up about this topic. But I am always stunned by the people who in one thread will talk about personal responsibility and how they just want the government to leave them alone, and then talk about how they are in favor of a mandatory draft in the next thread.
 
Then there's that slight practical issue of what people do when forced to be someplace against their will. Some turn to sabotage. That would be great: keep people in custody (and being on a base is just that) but provide them with arms and ammunition then or at a later point. Can you say "friendly fire"? The conscripted Russian army had that happen a-plenty.

I am NOT criticizing people who are serving or those who were drafetd and served, just pointing out that the draft has numerous down sides to it, not the least of which would be willingness of a substantial number of people caught up in it to sabotage the process.
 
I would support it, IF it was written in such a way that the people trained under the program are NOT construed to be the militia.

I would also support getting rid of the National Guard; that training program would provide a citizen-reserve force similar to that of Switzerland, making the Guard obsolete.
 
It'll never work.
There is no way the military could handle the influx of young conscripts*--the mechanism to induct that many youngsters (Oooh! Did I say that?) and just keep 'em for a year is just not in place.
And I don't wanna be called out of retirement to babysit.
*(NOTE: This IS NOT a draft! A draft is NOT universal service, it's mandatory service for the unfortunate few, based on a lottery, luck of the draw, roll of the dice.)
 
I spent nearly 21 years in the Army and I didn't consider it slavery. I wasn't real happy about the prospects of military service at the time I received my draft notice because I was like most other selfish and self centered teenagers. I wanted to be with my friends having fun partying and doing as I wanted. However as I aged and matured I realized it is your obligation as a citizen of this country to give a small portion of your life to provide for it's defense. A whole lot of good people died to found and preserve this country with it's opportunities. Everyone needs to spend some time in some thrid world stink hole. It really makes you appreciate what we have.

What language do you think we would be speaking right now if there had been no draft for WWII? Yes, there were a lot of volunteers but the bulk of the military was made up of draftees. Waiting for an invasion would have been far too late to start building a military.

Why is it OK for volunteers to go to Afghanistan and risk their lives while so many others go on with their daily lives safe in the US pursuing their own selfish interests? The terrorist attack on 9/11 was not Viet Nam, Bosnia, etc, but the United States. All of us have a direct interest and risk. Since 9/11 the military is not allowing large numbers of people to leave the service when their enlistment runs out because of a shortage in certain fields. If there was a draft there would be no shortage. But I guess that's OK, they volunteered for it.

Nearly every other county in the world has a draft. They don't seem to have a problem with it. The reason we have so much opposition to a draft is "don't bother me, let someone else do it".
 
While I was writing my last post a couple others wrote about draftees. I served with a lot of draftees. They were as good of a soldier as a volunteer and in many cases a better solider because they knew they only had to serve for 2 years and they would be gone. Too many volunteers went into the military to get away from mommy and daddy telling them what to do and found out that the Army had a lot more people telling them what to do than just mom and dad. Problem was that they had to serve 3 or 4 years instead of 2 like a draftee. The draftee just gritted his teeth, did his job and got out. Many volunteers became problem children.

Colin Powell was a general. To become a general you had to be a politician and mouth all the things the government wanted you to say. You don't become a general bucking the system. The politician wanted a volunteer army and so they had to demonize the draft soldier to make a draft army sound undesireable. Drug usage was rampant during Viet Nam among draftees and volunteers equally because it was rampant in the civilian world where these soldiers came from. There were as many "fraggings" by volunteers as draftees. After the draft ended and it was an all volunteer force I had more problems with soldiers than during the draft years. Draftees were good soldiers and it is an injustice to them to portray them in such a poor light as the politicians have done to get a volunteer army.
 
I like the idea, we once had the draft and it worked, believe me we will need it in the future,
like it or not.
Freedom is never free this will become more
noticable in coming years and perhaps some
would go to Canada, to them I say goodbye.!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top