1. More citizens having a vested interest in the direction of our foreign policy.
2. An armed and trained citizenry
3. Fully staffed armed forces

These goals are good, but come on. You talk about conscription being a motivator? I believe it would do just the opposite. I think it would invite more resentment and rebellion (especially under the foreign policy we’ve had for the last few decades). How many times have you been more motivated by being forced to do something as opposed to choosing for yourself? I agree with the above quote:

“…there would be little sense of self-sacrifice when a task is done purely out of obligation”

I think the best way to acheive your goals would be to start by electing government officials who actually follow the constitution and make wise and moral decisions for our country. I think if people started to trust their leaders once again and agreed with their policies and actions, more of them would naturally be willing to sacrifice their service for what America stands for.

If someone like Ron Paul was president, the military might be a more desirable place to be because people wouldn’t feel so much like “pawns” in a senseless and endless war. They would know their service was being used responsibly and constitutionally for a very good reason. Let’s face it. If you’re going to put your life on the line and give your best, it helps immensely to know that the cause you’re fighting for is just. If you don’t have that…well, good luck trying to get anyone to defend it — even if they are forced to be there.

I think that anyone serving in a military unit should be granted citizenship (this would be available only to children who fall within the bounds of conscription service.

Are you willing to bleed for our country? Welcome, brother!

Don’t get me wrong… conscription could be a filthy bit of coercion, if, for example, our president got us into a war and then couldn’t convince anyone to join-up by appealing to their better selves… and instead, relied on conscription.

But to me, a well-crafted and appropriately-timed conscription act could be quite a blessing to our nation…

Imagine:

Suddenly the overwhelming majority of our nation’s households — not just our nation’s poorest, or those with a family history of military service — would have a vested interest in the direction of our foreign policy.

Suddenly our nation would be fully-armed — with nearly every citizen properly trained in the safe use and storage of weapons… and no longer would the Second Amendment be a marketing ploy by gun industry nut jobs… but a real and abiding check to the power of the state.

And suddenly our armed forces would be fully-staffed… appropriately managed, such a program could woo some of our nation’s best and brightest to serve in long term capacities.

How do I see this happening?

It starts with timing: no conscription bill should even be presented until we’re out of Iraq — and with Iran off the table.

Next comes some leg-work: we would need to expand our training facilities considerably… imagine some 20 million young people going through an 8 – 12 week bootcamp over the course of five years. Other changes would also have to be made.

As for the basic layout, I see this: for this to work, and to be the motivator I hope it will be, the net must bring in as many of each generation as possible… exempting only the mentally un-sound, the mentally handicapped, and the most disabled of our physically disabled. There’s no reason a boy in a wheelchair can’t learn to shoot a gun or take an order. Both men and women would serve and service would be regardless of sexual orientation.

After a proper and thorough bootcamp experience, each conscript would be issued a rifle, some ammo, and a gun safe — which would be theirs for the rest of their lives. At this point, and according to some combination of need and choice, conscripts would serve-out the remaining period of their service (15 months?) in either a US military or para-military unit, a State-run National Guard unit, a unit under NATO command, a unit under UN command (yeah yeah, calm down), or any of a number of alternative-service corps.

Care would have to be taken in designing these alternatives… but I think it could be done effectively… Army Corps of engineers, peace corps, urban volunteer corps. The trick would be creating corps that served national interest without undermining professional services in the same area.

The real question, though, would be how do we draw upon these corps in time of national crisis? Well, that’s the hard question… and one that people smarter and more involved than I should answer.

So there you go… more fleshing-out is needed, but I think it’s clear enough.

Thoughts?

We (generically speaking) always sit back and allow our nation to massacre and kill in our names without being bothered to look up from the sports page or the soap opera. It’s more important to us to find out what Paris Hilton is up to, or to cheer for the next American Idol than to be bothered with our country’s murders.

For the majority of us, the war is not close and personal like it was for Cindy Sheehan and others, so we just sit back and let it happen and are thus complicit to some extent. If it hit home for us by taking away our sons and daughters, maybe then we would finally have the fire lit under us necessary to do the job of getting rid of our wicked leaders.

Our banner on a website, printing and posting the anti-draft flyer or just telling friends would help!

Thanks!

Scott Kohlhaas

PS. When it comes to conscription, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!