US Military Draft

[Toecutter]

If memory serves, anyone who has a misdemeanor on their criminal record is automatically moved to the top of the list for the draft. However, I doubt we want a bunch of convicted felons, who are slowly converting en masse to Islamic Fundamentalism, given guns, and sent out to blow stuff up.

If a nation's power is it's military (though I think it's the economy) and the population in the states is a fast aging one....then what happens if there is a war 30 years from now? A really bad one?

What do you mean by fast-aging? Are you talking the population biologically ages to the point of becoming a bunch of geriatrics in just a couple decades?

As for a nation's power, it has always been manifested in the military. The economy is fueled by circulation of monetary value. That requires negotiation with outside parties (no matter how self-sufficient a nation is, there are certain raw materials that post-Industrial Revolution societies require that are rare, or not found in the local region) for international commerce. Monetary value basically comes down to territory. Think about it this way: oil is considered of great value, and it is concentrated in certain regions in the Earth. Gold, diamonds, and Silver, have mostly been harvested to rarity or nonexistance in the United States, so we must turn to the biggest stockpile (Africa) to get them.

The economy is fueled by the availability of these resources, compared to how much you can overcharge your customers for the finished product. Control of certain territories is necessary to keep one's economy, and therefore, one's nation, thriving. To achieve that grip on territory, negotiation is required.

Violence is just another tool for negotiation. War is just a society-supported final tool for achieving economic superiority. Competition is natural for living things, and those who have the strength and intellect to gain more territory, which equals more resources, deserve to outbreed the weaker variants.

[Pie Row Maniac]

Draft = Stupid, except in defensive wars, in which case I say everyone fights.

Funny how I agree with about 85% of what you say on the forums.

[azulmagia]

Violence is just another tool for negotiation. War is just a society-supported final tool for achieving economic superiority. Competition is natural for living things, and those who have the strength and intellect to gain more territory, which equals more resources, deserve to outbreed the weaker variants.

Cartman sez: "Respect my authoritah!!"

"The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist -- McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

- Thomas L. Friedman in Manifesto for a Fast World

That's funny, I always had a feeling that hidden hand was giving a middle finger to most of the world.

[GebStar]

Draft = Stupid, except in defensive wars, in which case I say everyone fights.

Agreed........BTW loved ur Mvid in FF.

[TheRealNeoHentaiMaster]

Give a third of the women in Saudi Arabia guns and some training and Saudi Arabia will become a democracy overnight.

HAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.......no....See, not to be insulting or anything, but this is an interesting show of ignorance. You think all women act like they do in the US, or other developed nations? Differences in culture go a long way my friend.

However, about the thing about women shooting better, it actually is true. Women can tend to be far more accurate shooters, because, has it has been explained to me, they tend to pull the trigger in a softer way, which keeps the gun more steady has they fire. However, this doesnt come close to making up for their awful driving ability.

[Kracus]

That and dumping jailed folks into the wars....

military training and duties for criminals, sounds bad, but military traingin can sure hammer your mind into the armies desiered shape.

The Military doesn't want Robots, they want killers. People who can work in a team or independently to achieve a common goal for their country. Training teaches you how to survive when people are shooting at you.

[Kamoc]

just think of the deaths caused by the ability to 'throw like a girl' with grenades.

SUSY THROW IT FAR GO SUSY

SUSY IT LANDED 2 FEET AWAY

GOD DAMNIT SU

SEXIST RISE UP AND KILL HIS HEAD DEAD

[Simpi]

Here is an interesting article: http://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/ope ... 2006.story

Covertly recruiting kids

AWEEK before school started this year, I noticed a small advertisement in my local newspaper. It was from my school district, and buried in the ad's fine print was an announcement that the local high school would be sending the names and phone numbers for all juniors and seniors to U.S. military recruiters.
This is more than a back-door assault on student privacy. It may have life-or-death consequences for unwitting kids who are contacted by recruiters.

This student information give-away was mandated in a little-known provision of the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's sweeping education law. The law went into effect in 2002, but many schools only became aware of the obscure military recruiting provision in the last year. Schools risk losing all federal aid if they fail to provide military recruiters full access to their students; the aid is contingent on complying with federal law.

This recruiting access provision is different from draft registration. Military conscription ended in 1973, but starting in 1980, 18-year-old males have been required to register for possible military call-up.

What does military recruiting have to do with education? Nothing. But it has everything to do with eliminating a community's ability to decide how it guards student privacy.

The military recruiting requirement has forced many schools to overturn longstanding policies on protecting student records from prying eyes. My local high school, like most in the country, carefully guards its student directory information from the countless organizations, businesses and special-interest groups that are itching to tempt impressionable teens.

No other parent who I asked noticed my school's ad. That's just what the Bush administration wants. This provision relies on stealth. If students and parents are alerted that military recruiters will come knocking, they might be tempted to take advantage of the law's opt-out clause: parents can notify the school in writing to withhold their child's name from recruiters.

Schools are given wide leeway in how they inform parents and students about this provision. In Bennington, Vt., the high school principal sent home a letter explaining the new military recruitment provision and included a simple opt-out check-off for parents and students to sign and return. The result: One-sixth of the student body opted out.

A school in Fairport, N.Y., near Rochester, offered families two choices: They could opt to allow the recruiters access or opt out. The result was that out of 1,200 juniors and seniors, only 43 families chose to let their names go to recruiters.

My local school is keeping relatively mum about all this, which is legal but dishonest: Few parents will notice their rights in the fine print (nor understand what is at stake), so few students will opt out.

You might assume that this blatant effort by recruiters to sidestep parents and overrule communities is because the military is having trouble recruiting. The opposite is true. All branches of the military have exceeded their recruitment goals for the last three years.

I found out the real reason for this backdoor recruiting campaign when I spoke with its sponsor, Rep. David Vitter, R-La. He told me last year that he simply objected to high schools being able to deny a recruiter access to its students. In 1999, recruiters were denied access to schools on 19,228 occasions. Reasons for denial could range from school district policy or just because it might be a school test day.

To Mr. Vitter, there are no good excuses for limiting how the military can reach your child. The access denials "demonstrated an anti-military attitude that I thought was offensive," he told me.

This law really isn't about recruiting. It's about stamping out political dissent and local control. So when the school districts in San Francisco and Portland, Ore., deny access to any organization that discriminates against gays and lesbians, as does the military, such local sentiment is now overruled.

The new law will also make it more difficult for schools to set restrictions on who can and cannot have access to students. "I don't want student directories sent to Verizon either just because they claim that all kids need a cell phone to be safe," says Bruce Hunter, chief lobbyist for the American Association of School Administrators.

And don't depend on recruiters to go away just because you tell them to. As I was told by Maj. Johannes Paraan, formerly the head U.S. Army recruiter for Vermont and northeastern New York, "The only thing that will get us to stop contacting the family is if they call their congressman. Or maybe if the kid died, we'll take them off our list."

Parents and students have the last word -- if they use it. Any student or parent can notify their high school that they want to opt out of having their names made available to the military, but they should act quickly, before schools hand over the information.

The Bush administration claims it wants to leave no child behind. This stealth recruiter law makes clear what they really had in mind.

David Goodman is a journalist and author in Vermont. His latest book is Fault Lines: Journeys Into the New South Africa (University of California Press, 2002).

In Finland we have a compulsory military (or alternative service) for 6 - 13 months (not for women, though it should be). As I currently study in UK, I always laugh my butt of when I see some army recruiting ad that portrays it as gung-ho adventure.

Heck, we even had a visit from couple of recruiters few days ago, though I don't know which year student/department they visited (probably final year. Say, have you considered a future career in the military?)

[jonmartensen]

This is more than a back-door assault on student privacy. It may have life-or-death consequences for unwitting kids who are contacted by recruiters.

Oh no, the recruiters know our phone numbers, and possibly our addresses. Now they're going to force everyone to join the military by talking to us, scary O.o If that isn't facist ruling by the government, I don't know what is.

Because of this, we're all gonna die!!!! AAAaaauuuuggghhhhh!!!!!

[)v(ajin Koji]

This is more than a back-door assault on student privacy. It may have life-or-death consequences for unwitting kids who are contacted by recruiters.

Oh no, the recruiters know our phone numbers, and possibly our addresses. Now they're going to force everyone to join the military by talking to us, scary O.o If that isn't facist ruling by the government, I don't know what is.

Because of this, we're all gonna die!!!! AAAaaauuuuggghhhhh!!!!!

Oh dear!