As a child of the 60s I never thought I'd say this but we should bring back the draft. Having a military force completely divorced from the will of the populace leads to a 20 year carnage that isn't even newsworthy while the rest of us sip lattes.
Of course our problems are manifold: our politics is also largely unresponsive to We The People; the media serves those same interests and not ours; murky intelligence agencies exert unlimited money, power, and influence.
So it's overwhelming. What could bring people to the streets? The government asking you to give your life for an idiotic graft like Afghanistan, which, to remind everybody, is happening right this minute in Syria.
The idea is generally a good one, the problem is that people of influence and authority will be sure to pull strings and keep their offspring far from harm's way. See: Bush, George W.; Gore, Albert A.; Trump, Donald J. and many many others.
Sure, a far from ideal solution, but better I feel than what we have now. Elites will pervert any system; that much we know. And I think a two year stint right after high school might not be so bad, as I'm imagining it including the option for work in building infrastructure, forestry management, teaching, firefighting -- not just the military. Many don't know what the hell they want to do with their lives when they're 18, and that's fine. Figuring this out while contributing to the country (and not just by being triggermen for the petroleum industry as it is now) would be beneficial for everyone involved.
As a child of the 60s I never thought I'd say this but we should bring back the draft. Having a military force completely divorced from the will of the populace leads to a 20 year carnage that isn't even newsworthy while the rest of us sip lattes.
Of course our problems are manifold: our politics is also largely unresponsive to We The People; the media serves those same interests and not ours; murky intelligence agencies exert unlimited money, power, and influence.
So it's overwhelming. What could bring people to the streets? The government asking you to give your life for an idiotic graft like Afghanistan, which, to remind everybody, is happening right this minute in Syria.
The idea is generally a good one, the problem is that people of influence and authority will be sure to pull strings and keep their offspring far from harm's way. See: Bush, George W.; Gore, Albert A.; Trump, Donald J. and many many others.
Sure, a far from ideal solution, but better I feel than what we have now. Elites will pervert any system; that much we know. And I think a two year stint right after high school might not be so bad, as I'm imagining it including the option for work in building infrastructure, forestry management, teaching, firefighting -- not just the military. Many don't know what the hell they want to do with their lives when they're 18, and that's fine. Figuring this out while contributing to the country (and not just by being triggermen for the petroleum industry as it is now) would be beneficial for everyone involved.