This entry was posted on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 7:54 pm and is filed under News, Control, War, Peace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
End of the Volunteer Army?
This time Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is serious about reinstating the draft. He says it is a matter of fairness. Thomas Jefferson agreed. It is probably no surprise, however, that students don’t tend to agree. Students involved in Nonmilitary Options for Youth in Austin, Texas, asked high school students how they would solve the problem faced by the all-volunteer army.
If most young people are adamantly opposed to universal military conscription, and if some understand the unfairness of the de facto draft we have now, what is the solution?
Students suggest that answers may be found in what schools have taught all along: “I think we should handle things in a nonviolent grown-up way.” “We should be big enough to reach an agreement with our enemies and settle it like civilized human beings.” “I think that people who think war is the best option are completely lazy; there are so many more options!” One student concluded simply, “I believe that the best way to make peace is with peace.”
College students at Campus Progress have been weighing in, too. Some say no way to the draft, others favor joining the Israeli Army (!). Then comes the response that suggesting joining any army is no way to run a progressive website.
I like the alternatives offered by the high school students. I am not crazy about the draft. I do think it would be completely fair to have mandatory national service, though. National service doesn’t necessarily mean serving in the military. No, that’s not an idea that is making me excited either. I don’t know. I don’t know.
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