The Draft
I just say a random link on Alexis's profile. It made me think. From an officer's point ov view I could not be happier that the draft is over. It keeps things like full metal jacket in the movies and off of the battlefields. For one it makes our fighting force one of the single most dedicated forces in the world. Rivaled only by the israelies because they are fighting for their survival and perhaps the french foreign legion because they have nothing else to fight for. However the soldier and political sides of me think that that was the worst thing that could have happened to society at large, on par with the colapse of the Roman military system 2 milenia ago. No young men are not cutting off their right thumb's so they can't wield a sword, as funny as that might be. Rather young men and women don't appreciate the lives they are offered. That is not a wholse sale accusation, but out here in the Great North West I see it as a common theme that most kids my age don't know why they are able to protest, hug trees, or go out and get a good job. They assume its their God-given right to have that privledge. Often they look down at me or my soldiers and treat us inferior or undereducated because of our choosen or current profession. I might not be as educated as alot of PhD's out there but when it comes to intelligence I would dare say any one of my 13P or 13M soldiers could easily outclass most of them. Take the officers in my unit. Right now I am performing 2 different jobs, establishing SOP's, developing my soldiers, learning a 3rd job, and still find time to read a book a week, the daily news paper, go out on Saturday, and go to church on Sunday. Throw in there that I have a working mastery of physics so that I can both accurately predict the trajectory of a 100 pound shell or a 20 foot rocket, plus a basic knowledge of mechanics so that I can keep vehicles in good repair and organize them according to the most serious deficiencies. Ok enough said, most soldiers are like me jack of all trades and masters of none. But across the board soldiers past and present all realize why raising our hand and taking an oath set us apart from society. It gave us a code to live by, a job to perform, and a country to love all through service to those around us. We have a very deep appreciation for the freedom to read what we want, to eat what we want, to vote, even to simply embrace a loved one because at some point it has been taken away so that we can continue to serve. In short the draft was a good thing for America because it taught every boy the basics of how to be a man and what in this life was worth fighting for.