> >It is every mans' duty to serve his country. My pops went, and was two months away from Vietnam. He served his country. Frankly, I think every able-bodied American man, and every able-bodied, single, American, woman(unless she has a worried pop) should enlist, or if he is drafted, he should go willingly. Not only is it his duty, but will benifit(spl) him in many ways; he will gain discipline, become pysically stronger, and be able to endure harsh mental conditions. So one may consider an able-bodied American man that does not join any branch of the Armed Forces a draftdodger, even though technically, he is not dodging the draft.
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> This is just bizarre. Let me see if I understand some of your reasoning here.
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> You are saying that every able-bodied American man and woman should join the armed forces. Assuming all several hundred million of them join up at once, and assuming your government can think of something to *do* with an army which would then be bigger than the entire population of most nations, who is going to continue running the country on a day-to-day basis? Looks like fun for the two or three thousand people left over. From what you say, the only people who *shouldn't* join the armed forces are married, disabled women with a family. That's one hell of a demographic to take over the entire economy and workforce of the USA. I'm sure they have plenty of time to do that.
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> The ancient Spartans were the only society, to my knowledge, who managed to remain a productive, powerful state while having their entire citizenry mobilised as full-time professional soldiers. They did it by basing their domestic economy on slave labour. Sparta was incredibly successful but I'm sorry to tell you times have changed a bit since then.
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> Being in the armed forces *does* benefit some people in the ways you mention. Other people will be broken down by the training or ruined emotionally by combat experiences. Being killed might also be seen by some people as something of a bummer with few ongoing personal benefits. You need to stop spouting un-backed-up rhetoric, get a grip on reality, and maybe read some history books.
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> To pick another topic out of your post: why should married women be exempt from compulsory service in your brave new world, if married men aren't? Or those whose parents will worry about them? This probably hasn't been covered in the glossy recruiting brochures where you obviously keep your brain, but worrying your family members every time you trudge off to a war zone is part of the deal. If worried parents were a valid reason to avoid military service, there wouldn't have been a single war since the dawn of time.


I was exageratting, but I'm afraid I didn't make it sound like I was exagerating. Scratch out everything I said in the last post. Let me rephrase that.

Every able-bodied American man should join the military and serve. Then he should go off and settle down and pick a profession. Is that any better?