Well put CB, I also believe we underestimate the motivation factor of people volunteering to serve, vice being drafted to serve. Today, when a young person gripes about the long hours, the grueling training schedule, or standing guard when the wind chill is 40 below, you can say to them "you volunteered, now do your duty"!
It sounds like a small thing, but multiplied by thousands of tasks, and intertwined with hundreds of events, it has a profound effect.
One of the reasons I think we failed as a fighting force in many ways in Vietnam, was because people were forced to go. To many it was a sentence, a punishment forced on them by "the man".
If we began a draft tomorrow, all a person would have to do in order to get out is smoke a little pot. One time caught and you're out of the service. Drink too often and you're out too. The standards today are much higher, because our force is an all volunteer force. In other words, the reason we're the best is because we're an all volunteer force. You want to ruin our military, lose the war with the American people, and destroy military morale. Then institute the draft.
Of course it's true there were many hard working heroes who put their life on the line for our country in Vietnam, but the reality is our force is much better trained, has better equipment, is better led and better motivated today than in any time of our history. We don't want to go back to the long-haired, low standards, dope smoking, non serious training ways of Vietnam. And make no mistake; ushering in thousands of unmotivated draftees would put us on that path.
Why screw with success of this magnitude?
Lastly, I believe I have been in a unique position to view this latest generation of American boys and girls coming out of high school, and I firmly believe, if we provide the right incentive, which typically means having the ability to go to college and get a degree, they are as committed to serve, and patriotic as any generation of kids in our history. For every "I don't care" MTV kid out there, there are three "I love my country and I want it to succeed" kids. And talk about diversity. You want to see the diversity of our country in full bloom, go visit a Navy ship or any military unit! It makes you proud as hell seeing the diversity of our country willing to serve. |
