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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (97853)	1/31/2005 8:00:22 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 793757

I'd rather try to persuade him by finding out what it takes to make him think it's worth his while. Coercion ain't it. I lived with and worked with and around a lot of draftees in the service. They served well and wore their uniforms with pride. I never heard one say he had been coerced. I never heard a draftee complain about serving. I never heard one ask, why me? I never met a draftee who thought his service was a waste of his time. They were persuaded to serve by a letter that started with the word, "Greetings." There was a lot behind that letter. Including a lot of of fine history. And serve they did with distinction and honor. America has had a lot of bad programs. The draft was not one of them. That is my opinion and I'm sticking to it. I understand your opinion. You want to attempt to buy the hearts and minds of our young people with $$$$. I for one do not believe it will work effectively. That concept does not fulfill what in my view is the important concept of shared sacrifice. My family produces military personnel. You don't want your family to do that. You are willing to pay my family more to serve, but you also want us to pay more taxes to pay ourselves more money so your family won't have to serve. You will never sell me that idea. Living free comes with burdens and costs. The burdens and costs should be shared equally. The IRS has never been a perfect way to share the costs of freedom but it spreads the load fairly well. The draft was also not perfect but it was a way to share the burden. Perhaps the next draft can be fixed to make the sharing more equal, though I believe the last iteration of the draft was working pretty well for a federal program. The book The Millionaire Next Door lists some very cogent reasons why American youngsters are not only not motivated by money but actually lose motivation when given too much. Having lived much of the story told in that book, I agree with the points made. Paying teen-agers $50,000 plus benefits to serve in our armed forces will not be doing them or America a favor. uw

To: Ilaine who wrote (97853)	1/31/2005 8:39:42 AM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793757

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.