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

To: unclewest who wrote (97870)	1/31/2005 8:27:30 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793757

Paying teen-agers $50,000 plus benefits to serve in our armed forces will not be doing them or America a favor You are setting up a "straw man," UW. You pay what is necessary to get the people you need, and not a buck more. If you are short infantrymen, up the entry level money for them. Why should a company clerk in the green zone make the same bucks as a trigger puller? This is easy to do, and not that much more money. When you watch the interviews with the original "band of brothers," every one of them talks about the $50 a month extra for being a paratrooper as a major reason for their volunteering.

To: unclewest who wrote (97870)	1/31/2005 10:12:12 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793757

Living free comes with burdens and costs. Doesn't you see the irony in coercing people to fight so they can live free? I never heard one say he had been coerced. The military religion is potent.

To: unclewest who wrote (97870)	1/31/2005 11:37:32 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 793757

Well, during Vietnam I knew a heck of a lot of people who did not want to be there, including ones who were there. They didn't complain to you, maybe, but they did complain to me. Maybe I am a better listener. ;^) As for my kids -- one is already an adult, one will be an adult soon. I support them doing whatever it is that they want to do, and don't intend to lean on them more than just a little. Well, Ben I do think should become a college professor, maybe in economics. He's got that quality. But it's his decision. Nick I think should become a chef but who knows? He talks about the Marines, and the only thing I have to say is that he'd have to get used to taking orders, which he isn't very good at. The reason he wants to join the Marines is that he would like to blow things up. Not the best reason but maybe an OK reason.

To: unclewest who wrote (97870)	2/1/2005 9:20:51 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793757

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. Being drafted pretty much perfectly fits the definition of coercion. Its likely that in many cases the coercion was minimal, but the only way it is zero is if they would have signed up even without the draft. A lot of draftees would have signed up without the draft. I'm sure you could have had a pretty big army in WWII without the draft, esp, if it paid better then what we paid back then. But for something as major as WWII I might actually grudgingly support a draft. Any need less than that and I am very unlikely to support a draft. It is force service, and for those that are really unwilling it meets the technical definition of slavery even if they do get paid, and even if their life is very different than what we think of when we hear the term slave. Supporting a draft in a WWII level crisis isn't a matter of thinking it is really ok even then, but rather thinking that doing this awful thing may be justified by the extreme circumstances. 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. No one is forcing your family to take up this burden. It is an honorable burden to pick up and we need some people who will do it, but we don't need to force that burden on to others. Also a draft wouldn't really be sharing the burden. If we had a draft we still probably would not greatly expand the size of military. The vast majority of Americans wouldn't be in the military. The burden of combat would fall to a very few just as it does now, and some of them would be coerced in to assuming that burden. Paying teen-agers $50,000 plus benefits to serve in our armed forces will not be doing them or America a favor. If you mean $50k/year that isn't going to happen. Privates aren't going to be paid that much per year, or as a re-enlistment bonus. We've had a much bigger all volunteer military in the past. While there might be some difficulty and a lot of need for hard work, I think we can maintain a military at our current size or even slightly bigger without tossing around $50k to privates. Tim