>>I still think that every able man should join the Armed Forces.

Even if I hadn't taken that statement out of context, I would still have to disagree with it. The armed forces don't need that many people.

Sometimes I wonder about all those young people who were killed in World War II. I'm including all nationalities. I wonder how many of them would have been great inventors, statesmen, researchers, doctors, or teachers. How many people did the world lose that might have found solutions to our current problems? If every generation has a great war to eliminate the best of that generation, we are in big trouble. War stinks. It makes no sense. It's the single most serious threat to mankind.

Another thing that I wonder about is the continuing war in the Middle East. What are they fighting for? Do they even know? Is it because they all want the same dry, rocky, unproductive strip of ground? I would think there is enough wasteland to go around.

And about that reader poll. I didn't participate, because there was no choice that applied to me. I was in ROTC so I could keep out of the Army long enough to finish college. Unfortunately, if you stayed in ROTC too long, they would give you a commission in the Army Reserve. But I didn't enlist and I wasn't drafted, so there was no correct answer for me. That's OK, I never wanted to be a soldier anyway. Lucky for me, I did my soldiering between wars, and I only had to blow up old rusty car bodies out on the artillery range.

Maybe if nobody joined the military, just maybe, they would pay what the job is worth. Don't hold your breath.
Howard