Running Gator Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Royal Member * Followers: 8 Topic Count: 91 Topics Per Day: 0.03 Content Count: 10,596 Content Per Day: 3.69 Reputation: 2,743 Days Won: 25 Joined: 06/16/2016 Status: Offline Share Posted April 27, 2017 10 hours ago, MorningGlory said: No, I was not and I resent your sneering comment, RG; do you believe everyone who supports military actions must join the armed forces? More and more I think that military service should be mandatory. There would be a lot less war hawks around if that were the case. There tends to be a lot less bravado when there is a chance they might have to be the one putting their life on the line. Quote This thread is not about me; it's about war strategies. I feel sorry for those who believe the U.S. is always wrong but then....most liberals do. I do not belive the US is always wrong, but I will not ignore it when we do wrong just because there is a Repub sitting in the White House. The US does many great things all around the world, but we all do a lot of things that we would never allow others to do to us. But we live by the rule of Might makes Right, and I do not believe that is a moral point of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
other one Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 29 Topic Count: 597 Topics Per Day: 0.08 Content Count: 56,116 Content Per Day: 7.56 Reputation: 27,847 Days Won: 271 Joined: 12/29/2003 Status: Offline Share Posted April 27, 2017 I agree that military service should be manditory.. including females. for the reason you mention and character building for our young people... the college snowflakes are a real danger to the long term survivability of our country. Plus, if the whole country is trained as Israel is, others would be much less likely to mess with us... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FresnoJoe Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Graduated to Heaven Followers: 207 Topic Count: 60 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 8,651 Content Per Day: 1.17 Reputation: 5,761 Days Won: 4 Joined: 01/31/2004 Status: Offline Birthday: 03/04/1943 Share Posted April 27, 2017 On 4/26/2017 at 6:45 AM, Running Gator said: We are the biggest, baddest country on the block with the biggest, baddest military, nobody can make us do anything, thus we are responsible for our own actions. There is nobody to blame for our actions but ourselves.... Or, Lack Of Action.....But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. Ezekiel 33:6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FresnoJoe Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Graduated to Heaven Followers: 207 Topic Count: 60 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 8,651 Content Per Day: 1.17 Reputation: 5,761 Days Won: 4 Joined: 01/31/2004 Status: Offline Birthday: 03/04/1943 Share Posted April 27, 2017 2 hours ago, Running Gator said: More and more I think that military service should be mandatory.... Amen~! And If You Didn't Serve No Elected Office In Your Future, Snowflake.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_S Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Servant Followers: 25 Topic Count: 275 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 5,208 Content Per Day: 1.00 Reputation: 1,893 Days Won: 0 Joined: 01/02/2010 Status: Offline Share Posted April 27, 2017 3 hours ago, Running Gator said: More and more I think that military service should be mandatory. There would be a lot less war hawks around if that were the case. There tends to be a lot less bravado when there is a chance they might have to be the one putting their life on the line. I don't necessarily accept this as true. How would this work? A mandatory two year term for everyone in the 18-20 year age bracket? This would probably be the most common template for that sort of thing. So you have about 7 to 8 millionish people in that age group at any given time. Probably fair to assume that in the vicinity of 15 to 20 percent of these would be medically disqualified from service, so we can take a million away and we're left with 6 million or so. This would leave us with a military that has 9 to 10 million at any given time. Our military right now has around 2 million, including reserves. I say 9 to 10 million because you'd have to greatly, greatly expand training capabilities and retain a far larger number of experienced non-commissioned officers for that purpose. You'd also have to vastly, vastly expand the officer corps itself in the long term, just to facilitate the constant matriculation of new recruits in and out of the military every year. You'd have to provide at least four times as much equipment as is currently provided, at least four times as much living space, at least four times as much food, water, electricity, etc. etc. etc. Firstly, this would be incredibly costly. The current defense budget is around 600 billion and about a quarter of that is manpower, so you could add another 450-550 billion on top of the defense budget right away just to cover that. If you went with a reserve template you could probably reduce that by 2/3, so the very best case would be 150-200 billion more for personnel. Equipment maintenance and procurement is another 250 billion currently, but to be fair a large chunk of that goes to hardware like aircraft carriers and planes, etc. Still, though, more equipment would have to be bought and maintained if you are going to increase the size of the military 4 or 5 fold, so it would not be unreasonable to expect that number to, at least, double. Off the bat you are adding 400 billion onto the defense budget on the low end, probably realistically 550 billion, at most 700-800 billion (and at most is never an impossibility when you are talking about expenditures). This is unfeasible for this reason alone. However, I must say that I disagree with you philosophically. We spent nearly a decade in vietnam in spite of this possibility. The problem, in my estimation, has a lot more to do with the fact that older men run countries, while younger men fight wars. The simple fact of the matter is that the men who send people to war in modern democracies are never going to be in any real danger of having to go themselves. My fear with an expanded military would be that it would be seen by some as a means to drastically, drastically increase our military presence outside of US borders - "Well, we have 8 million soldiers instead of two million? We can afford 200,000 in south korea as opposed to 30,000!" You could make an argument that fear of losing reelection may mitigate that a bit, but I don't think that it would mitigate it nearly as much as either you or I would like in such a scenario. All that is necessary for war in a democracy is pretense. I don't think that would change in any scenario, no matter whether your military is volunteer or totally compulsory or some hybrid of the two. If a person who happens to be running a country gets the proper pretense, everything after that is simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest shiloh357 Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 3 hours ago, Running Gator said: More and more I think that military service should be mandatory. There would be a lot less war hawks around if that were the case. There tends to be a lot less bravado when there is a chance they might have to be the one putting their life on the line. I know lots of "war hawks" that are current and prior service and would gladly serve again in war if their age and health issues weren't a barrier. And many of them, if not all of them, support what Trump is doing and our current posture toward N Korea and Syria and et al. You don't speak for a huge population of people who have served and think that our current policies are the right ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningGlory Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Royal Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 1,022 Topics Per Day: 0.16 Content Count: 39,193 Content Per Day: 6.11 Reputation: 9,977 Days Won: 78 Joined: 10/01/2006 Status: Offline Author Share Posted April 27, 2017 4 hours ago, Running Gator said: More and more I think that military service should be mandatory. There would be a lot less war hawks around if that were the case. There tends to be a lot less bravado when there is a chance they might have to be the one putting their life on the line. I do not belive the US is always wrong, but I will not ignore it when we do wrong just because there is a Repub sitting in the White House. The US does many great things all around the world, but we all do a lot of things that we would never allow others to do to us. But we live by the rule of Might makes Right, and I do not believe that is a moral point of view. Whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningGlory Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Royal Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 1,022 Topics Per Day: 0.16 Content Count: 39,193 Content Per Day: 6.11 Reputation: 9,977 Days Won: 78 Joined: 10/01/2006 Status: Offline Author Share Posted April 27, 2017 3 hours ago, other one said: I agree that military service should be manditory.. including females. for the reason you mention and character building for our young people... the college snowflakes are a real danger to the long term survivability of our country. Plus, if the whole country is trained as Israel is, others would be much less likely to mess with us... I have no problem with young females having to serve along with the males; that's equality. I almost enlisted at eighteen but my parents threw a fit. My dad was career military and regarded the female service women as whores and lesbians. Well, hey, he was a dinosaur but I didn't know any better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmuffet Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Royal Member Followers: 34 Topic Count: 1,991 Topics Per Day: 0.48 Content Count: 48,689 Content Per Day: 11.81 Reputation: 30,343 Days Won: 226 Joined: 01/11/2013 Status: Offline Share Posted April 27, 2017 6 minutes ago, MorningGlory said: I have no problem with young females having to serve along with the males; that's equality. I almost enlisted at eighteen but my parents threw a fit. My dad was career military and regarded the female service women as whores and lesbians. Well, hey, he was a dinosaur but I didn't know any better. I agree with you on this. I do not have a problem with females being enlisted along with males. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningGlory Posted April 27, 2017 Group: Royal Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 1,022 Topics Per Day: 0.16 Content Count: 39,193 Content Per Day: 6.11 Reputation: 9,977 Days Won: 78 Joined: 10/01/2006 Status: Offline Author Share Posted April 27, 2017 1 minute ago, missmuffet said: I agree with you on this. I do not have a problem with females being enlisted along with males. I'm glad to know that, MM, because a LOT of women don't think they are called to serve. I think everyone owes this country; every American that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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