[quote]nephorm wrote:
Military virtue can be very constructive for a republic.
Not everyone gets the kind of education at home that would lead to patriotism and a view of the world beyond one’s own immediate interests.
The idea that regular military service shouldn’t be a part of every citizen’s life is a recent one.
[/quote]
Joining the military doesn’t make one patriotic. I was in with many who would not fit this discription. Many had nothing better to do because of their previous lives.
And if you think that most people in the military think beyond thier own backyard you’d be wrong. Many are uneducated and haven’t a clue about current affairs other than pop culture–I am speaking for the younger generations which make up approx 80% of all forces.
Now, maybe forcing people to join might changes those statistics but it would also hinder those that have nothing left to do but join on their own. There are 380 million people in this country last time I checked. In the current military there are aproximately 1.5 million active and I think another .5 million reserve.
If we started forcing people to join we would have to make stricter rules to be eleigable for service becasue we would have a much larger pool to choose from. There would need to be a way to weed out the lesser. How would we do this…and who would we most likely do this to?