I’ve tried to stay out of this conversation but........you’re entitled to your views but please get your facts straight. Today’s military (regardless of how you might feel about their existence) is far better educated and technically capable than our military has probably ever been. They no longer take just anyone (like they did back in at the end of the Vietnam War....and going forward for more than a few years). The weapons and equipment are so much more sophisticated, complicated and advanced than they were in past generations. So they recruit people who have the intelligence/potential to operate those systems. The dregs of society no longer need to apply. Seems to me you’re insulting the shit out of poor “brown people”, accusing them of being uneducated (or stupid) for simply trying to make a better life for themselves. And please define “high pressure recruiting” that forces young people to enlist. You might (foolishly) believe there is no need for a military but unfortunately it isn’t going away anytime soon. And it provides a perfectly adequate option for those who either want to learn a useful trade, or who can’t afford to go to college and are looking for a way to fund an education going forward. In 64 years I have yet to meet anyone who joined the military because they had “no other choices” (unless they were drafted or or judge gave them a choice between the military or jail for criminal activities....and even then, that’s a choice). You exercised your American given right to avoid military service and more power to you. But please don’t disrespect those who served....for whatever reason and under whatever circumstances.
When I went in the Army in 1967 we had a guy in my platoon that was so fresh from surgery to his head from an auto accident that he was the only one who didn't need a new recruit haircut. He had a steel plate implanted. He would pass out in formation.
Another guy was brought in in handcuffs. They had to let him get a medical discharge when they found he had TB.
We had another guy who's dad was a General. They treated him just as shitty as the rest of us.
One other guy couldn't read or write. He called a bear a bar. Grew up in the woods of Northern California.
They took every one.
Actually, I think the draft is the best way to go. Why should those with money escape deadly combat? Okay, you lose a little when you get guys with a low IQ or a low education but almost everyone has the same chance of coming home in a pine box.
Everyone in my training platoon and in the only other platoon in our Company, except for three guys who re-upped for 4 years and me who was drafted and served two years, got orders for advanced training at Ft. Polk, Louisiana which prepared them for serving in Vietnam's delta. I got the same 7 months of electronics training that the other three guys got because my test scores were beyond outstanding. My math score was 154, 100 is average. My electronics score was above 150 and my IQ was 147. That too, may have saved my life. Guys in the delta were stepping on land mines and getting killed. Some were going home minus limbs. Again, why should only volunteers have to face that? I think society decays when we are all not faced with that kind of horror.
It also makes us a lot more cognizant of what going to War really means. This enables us to cast a better vote.
