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Why conscription should be banned essay
Short essay on conscription
Essays over the military draft
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Why conscription should be banned essay
Short essay on conscription
Essays over the military draft
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Ever since the dawn of Republic, the American public grappled with the issue of the military draft. During the American Revolution, the Continental Army struggled to recruit men and enticed the potential soldiers with the lure of the free land or cash incentives. George Washington proposed to institute the draft, however, the Congress rejected his idea. The Civil War, the deadliest of the American armed conflicts, compelled the both warring sides to enact the conscription. The South instituted their draft in 1892, and the North followed with The Draft Act of 1863.
As President Roosevelt signed the selective training and service act of 1940. As the country’s first peacetime draft and formally established the act as an independent federal agency within the department of defense. Even before this there was a long history of drafting citizens to serve in the armed forces. Why drafting would be a bad idea, the training considerations, time lag, standards would drop, and high costs would be some bad ideas.
It takes a lot of courage and manpower to run a country especially such a big one like Canada. William Mackenzie-King was born 1874, he served as prime minister from 1921-30 and 1935-48. Considering he served for twenty-three year and he served as the longest standing Canadian PM through the great depression and a world war, he made few mistakes mostly not recognizing and acting during the depression. William Lyon Mackenzie King was a semi-successful prime minister considering the economic and military conflict that was present in Canada at the time of his reign. He had a close friendship with the American prime minister, Franklin Roosevelt ultimately helping the Canadian and british war effort.
Many of the people who argue from different perspectives focus on the key words in the constitution to make their arguments stronger. John Yoo contends that declaring war is the mechanism of authorization as it is stated in the constitution. Thus, the president is commander in chief whose purpose is to control the war after the decision is made. He tries to make his argument more clear by showing that Congress is the “sole authority to engage the nation in war” (Yoo).I disagree with Yoo’s argument because being commander in chief of the armed forces is a significant authority; moreover the constitution gives the authority to the president to send soldiers to foreign countries in case there is an urgent situation that may require the armed forces. In addition to that, Turner claims that in the original constitution the term. "to make War" was used which gives essentially all powers related to war beyond the actual command of troops, as had been the case under the Articles of Confederation.
If I was one of the thousands of incarcerated Japanese-American "citizens" during World War II, and I was asked to pledge my allegiance to a country of which I could not even attain a valid citizenship, a country that had imprisoned myself and my family because of our ethnicity, it would be an easy decision. No. Furthermore, if they expressed their audacity by asking me if I would be willing to serve in their military, my answer would be synonymous. No. Even with the numerous consequences that would come with my chosen responses, I wouldn 't change them for the world.
From the beginning of the United States’ history, conflict has always been prevalent. The need for armed forces continually grows, especially in times of war, as the fight for freedom becomes more challenging. Conscription, better known as the draft, was first introduced during the Civil War as a way to get more individuals involved in the military to fill vacant positions. The practice of the draft was finally discontinued in favor of an all-volunteer military system, when the need for troops was no longer necessary. After almost two decades of being involved overseas, the demand for armed troops is imperative once again.
Overall the Conscription Act of 1917 had a detrimental impact on Canada and it is a defining moment in our history as it was so controversial and impacted every Canadian in one way or another. Mandatory recruitment ruined our economy, our society, and weakened our military. Canadians and our Government should learn from these mistakes and not repeat history once
Conscientious Objectors are a group of people who have claimed the right to refuse to perform combatic military service on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The Department of Defense defines conscientious objection as a “firm, fixed, and sincere objection to the participation in war in any form or the bearing of arms, by reason of religious training and/or belief.” (Conscientious Handbook pg 57a). Conscientious Objection has been an ongoing battle since the beginning of war. Conscientious objection to war has never been a popular choice in any time period or in any place.
Throughout history, countries are inevitably pulled into conflicts that result in war. These conflicts usually occur because of interests in: economic gain, territorial gain, religion, and nationalism. America, like every country, needs a military to defend itself, especially when tensions arise in other parts of the world and when militia numbers start to decrease. This then allows the government to draft its population to serve in the military. People argue that young men and women’s bright lives are often cut short, and not allowed their Constitutional right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, but there are many benefits for the nation and the individual by serving one’s country.
Due to the first amendment in the constitution; Americans have had freedom of speech and writing. Can you think of any time that we haven’t had those rights? How about 1917 when you would be committing a crime for expressing you feelings about the president in the newspaper or writing something that could lesson the success of the armed forces? There was even someone that would go through the mail of Americans and got rid of things that were offensive. One of the people that went through this was Charles T. Schenck.
In David Barno’s , “A New Moral Compact,” he stresses about our countries current military situation, which is all-volunteer. Barno has also served time in the military himself as a lieutenant general. He claims that the countries current dependence on the all-volunteer military, allows us to rush into war without thinking about the consequences first. Barno proposes the idea, “that every use of military force over 60 days would automatically trigger an annual draft lottery to call up 10,000 men and women” (p.20).This solution is useful but it is not useful enough because it targets sympathy from the people while he needs to target the president because the president can initiate a war without consent of the people or Congress.
Conscription, also known as drafting, is a law that the government made for people to go to war. This law stated that anyone who was old enough and was able to fight in the war had to go, whether they wanted to go or not. People thought conscription was very beneficial, I on the other hand disagree. Personally, I do not think conscription is a good idea. It is unfair to force people to go to war, by forcing men to enlist in the army, the army force will not be as strong as it could be, and if conscription occurs, there’s an emotional toll to fighting.
With that being said there are always those that are exempt from military service, as well as those who cannot be exempt and will inevitably have their livelihoods changed for the worse. Due to evidence presented in previous conscription efforts, possible economic effects, infringement of civil liberties, and other priorities, a mandatory military conscription should not be a possibility in the United States. There have been many occasions in the past in which a mandatory
The United States should call for mandatory military service to ensure the freedom and liberty for the children of tomorrow. A lot of people do not know the United States has called for mandatory military service before, just with a different name, the draft. The draft has been “employed by the federal government of the United States in four conflicts: the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam war. “This makes five different occasions when Americans were drafted for a total of 16.5 million people” ( Random Fact of The Day 1). 16.5 million people were drafted and under 1.25 million died in these wars, which is about a 7.6% death rate.
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment. Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of military discipline may have occurred. In addition, courts-martial may be used to try prisoners of war for war crimes. The Geneva Convention requires that prisoner of wars who are on trial for war crimes can be subject to the same procedures as would be the holding military's own forces.