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Mandatory Military Service In The United States

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President John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Although the United States has the second largest number of military personnel worldwide, less than one percent of Americans are members of the military. According to Major General Dennis Laich, the all volunteer military model no longer works in todays world, and everyone should have some “skin in the game”. Several other nations, including Israel, South Korea and Singapore, all have some form of mandatory service, which has proven effective for them. A constitutional amendment establishing two years of mandatory military service, either active or non-active duty, which must be completed by when the person turns 28, will not only ensure that everyone have “skin in the game”, but will grant many benefits to all Americans. I believe that a constitutional amendment establishing two years of mandatory military service for all American Citizens should be enacted. According to debate.org, 54% of Americans surveyed support mandatory military service. If this were made an amendment, it would have many benefits for American society as a whole. For example, it would provide the discipline needed by …show more content…

The type of service could be many different things, depending on the person and their skills. These types of service could include teaching, agricultural work, working against poverty, or a variety of different things. A citizen could be selected for non-active duty based on a variety of different qualifications, including education level, medical condition, and applicable skills. While to some this may sound like a lesser service than than the military, I would argue that this is an equal service. It is true that these people will not have to fight enemies overseas, but they are fighting back home to transform America into a better

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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.

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The praises that you receive shouldn’t be based on the mere fact that you join but maybe for those who actually wants to serve and protect. In contrast, he says “Make that choice without looking back to see the cheering faces of those who tell you your duty is to do what they are not doing for purposes you may not know nor share” (Gillman 680). None the less, the author let the reader know that these young men and women risk their own lives for purposes which may not be of any value to themselves or the country. As a result, those purposes doesn’t deserve the praises that are

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Many soldiers are not re-enlisting or are deserting before their nine-month re-enlistment has ended. General Washington, desperate to keep an army together to fight the war against Britain has asked us soldiers look into our hearts and ask ourselves the following question: Will you quit? To quit would be to not re-enlist. I have decided to not re-enlist for three reasons which are high chances of illness, horrible lodging and weather, and sparse food and clothing.

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If the military draft was reinstated in the United States, it would give more responsibility to the citizens of this country. Americans have proven to very lazy, especially in recent years. Nobody is willing to do their part, even having been given complete freedom in their lives. Although we as citizens pay our taxes, there are so many other things that can be done in order to pay back our country for the right to be

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It would be horrible for a husband to be yanked from his wife and kids, then to find out he died fighting in a war he didn’t even sign up for. If a man has children, or his wife is expecting, he should be exempted. Some would argue that the mandatory draft was necessary, that “the U.S. military must remain prepared to fight a really big war that might require a much larger force” (Barno/Bensahel). To protect against that, there would be safeguards put into the mandatory draft. If the amount of soldiers in the military by volunteer dropped to a point that was too low to fight, the protections such as college and family, would be stripped, and the age range upped from 18-25 to 18-30.

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Citizens gain an understanding and appreciation for the sacrifices people in the military make. However, despite this… without the recognition of human rights, peace still can’t be achieved, whether its individual, cultural, or gender based rights. Even though forced labour is considered a violation of human rights, the practice of compulsory military service isn’t. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights only moved towards recognizing the right of individuals to object to military service in 1987.

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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.

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Having a good understanding of this will brighten your mind on how much they devote their lives to this. When anyone chooses to go into the military, they will spend many months away from their family and loved ones. These vets defend everyone no matter what race, gender, age, or religion and they show that by giving us back the freedom that they fought for. To

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During the 1970’s, the drinking age was raised from eighteen years of age to nineteen years of age, soon after it was adjusted to twenty-one years of age. However, in the time since, there has been growing discontent with the current laws that restrict military personnel who are under twenty-one years old, when they are serving their country, to legally purchase alcohol. On account of the age for drinking being higher than the age for enlisting in the military, the drinking age restriction should be adjusted accordingly to allow military personnel to purchase alcohol. As expected, bringing this issue up creates a multitude of opinions, all of which are full of stories and statistics for or against adjusting the minimum legal age to drink.

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“The Draft,” as it is commonly referred to, was enacted in September of 1940. Even though the United States was not yet involved in World War II when the act was passed, President Roosevelt regarded it as a vital method of training American men for military service. By 1940, tensions between the United States and Germany were rising as the Nazis had invaded numerous European countries and the news of concentration camps was spreading. Throughout July of 1940, England was the next country to face Nazi aggression, as they faced attacks from the German airforce and navy. With fears that America would be the next country to face a German invasion, Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, also proclaiming, “America stands

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In the United States, serving in the military is seen as a model of true patriotism, and rightfully so. Service members train for 10 weeks in their transition from civilian to a soldier. They train to be able to endure all the hardships that may come their way. Service members have to be in the best physical shape to serve and because of all that they do, they are thought of as brave and selfless people. Service members make extreme sacrifices to defend our country and act selflessly by doing so; it is fitting that they are seen as heroes by many Americans.

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502 Words | 3 Pages

From past experiences we know that appealing to the people doesn’t get far because the publics’ opinion on, if we go to war or no, isn’t worth anything compared to the Presidents. The president has a trend of making decisions on their own without seeking advice from any other source. The threat of a draft would possibly hinder the rush to war because of the human cost but attempting to change how the president makes decisions is a better solution because it does not have as many negative effects as that of a

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1363 Words | 6 Pages

Commitment, dedication, and motivation are the three most important values when joining the military. Background checks and months of training are required to ensure that the best is selected to stand strong as one for the best interest of all. Regardless of the requisites, hundreds of individuals devote their time to become part of the US military, unfortunately it is not meant for everyone. Even though the system tries to ensure that only the strong get chosen, it has been proven to be flawed. For example, ex-military personal, like Robert (Bowe) Bergdahl, have left base camps or leaked information to express their feelings towards the military.

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1110 Words | 5 Pages

In most cases, people often do better in situations that they want to be in. By demanding men to go to war when they rather be somewhere else, they are not going to do their very best. If you have 60% of men who do not want to be there and only 40% of men who want to be there, your army force will not do as well if you had 100% of men wanting to be there. According to the University of Warwick, they proved that people who are happy work harder than people who are unhappy, in their study they said, “They found happiness made people around 12% more productive, while unhappy workers proved 10% less productive.” This statistic shows that forcing people to enlist will not make their army force better and stronger, in fact it does the exact opposite.

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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

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