Conscription, DLC Style?

[Emit]

Edited to add, is this their solution to the draft?

From The AmeriCorps Experiment and The Future of National Service
Chapter 7:
The Voluntary Path to Universal Service

By Will Marshall and Marc Porter Magee

FIVE WAYS TO SCALE UP NATIONAL SERVICE
Our ultimate goal should be to make national service a common
expectation—a rite of civic passage—for young Americans on their
way to responsible and productive citizenship. Here are five ways we
can reach the next plateau in the evolution of national service:

Replace Selective Service with National Service

When Congress created the All-Volunteer Force in 1973, it kept one
vestige of the old World War II-era draft: the requirement that all
American males register with the Selective Service System on their 18th
birthdays. Registration is a hedge against the unlikely, but hardly
unthinkable, prospect that America may one day need to mobilize for
full-scale war. With a little imagination, the Selective Service System
could be recast as a recruiting device for voluntary national service, as
well as a register of the nation’s available manpower.1 Specifically, we
should replace Selective Service with a National Service System that
recruits young men and women to serve their country in one of three
ways: in the military’s new, short-term “citizen soldier” enlistment program;
in AmeriCorps; or in the Peace Corps, which should become a
vital component of U.S. efforts to promote political and economic freedom
abroad.


The new system would channel volunteers into these three streams
of service and handle post-service education awards. As an added
incentive to serve, public and private colleges should be encouraged to
favor applicants who agree to perform national service over applicants
who choose the registration-only option.2

Expand AmeriCorps
President Bush deserves credit for carrying through on his promise
to enlarge AmeriCorps from 50,000 to 75,000 members. But
while it’s gratifying to see a Republican president leading his party
toward a belated embrace of President Clinton’s signature program,
we shouldn’t stop there. In their bipartisan Call to Service bill,
Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) set a more
ambitious goal: increasing AmeriCorps to 250,000 members a
year, at a cost of about $15 billion, spread out over eight years. In
addition to investing more in the missions that AmeriCorps now
tackles—tutoring students, constructing houses, vaccinating children,
providing disaster relief—we should also test ways that
national service can be harnessed to meet the daunting new challenges
of homeland security.

As we expand service opportunities for young Americans, we should
not neglect the coming wave of baby boom retirees. A recent opinion
survey shows that the percentage of Americans nearing retirement who
are interested in a year or more of service increases fourfold to almost
50 percent if they are offered a structured service environment, a small
monthly stipend, and the choice of an education or health-care benefit.
3 Building on the success of the Senior Corps and the Experience
Corps, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) has proposed organizing
a large-scale “Boomer Corps” to enable the boomers to help themselves
meet the challenges of healthy and successful aging and give
something back to their country.4

Recruit More Citizen-Soldiers
In October 2003, the military began taking in its first recruits
through the new “citizen-solider” short-term enlistment program, the
most significant change in recruiting since the creation of the All-
Volunteer Force.5 Conceived by Northwestern University sociologist
Charles Moskos and shepherded into law by Senators McCain and
Bayh, the citizen-soldier option is intended to help meet our growing
personnel demands by offering America's youth a voluntary equivalent
of the draft: a way to serve their country in uniform without
choosing a military career.

The new option enables volunteers to sign up for 15 months of service
on active duty followed by 24 months in the reserves—a radical
departure from the four- and five-year active duty enlistments that are
now the norm. A look at the initial class of 3,600 recruits suggests that
the program is already beginning to fulfill its promise. The short-term
program has a much higher percentage of college-educated and collegebound
enlistees than traditional enlistment programs. It is also providing
immediate relief to the active-duty military positions experiencing
the greatest manpower shortages and is on track to deliver experienced
soldiers into a reserve force stretched thin by frequent mobilizations
since 9/11. National service advocates should urge the president and the
Defense Department to support both a larger military and a more ambitious
recruiting goal for this innovative program: Twenty-five thousand
citizen-soldiers per year by 2008 and 75,000 per year by 2012.

Replace Work Study with Serve Study
The federal Work Study program helps nearly 1 million students
pay for college at a cost of $1 billion a year. According to Harris
Wofford, former Pennsylvania senator and former chief executive officer
of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Work
Study was designed to provide low- and middle-income students with
additional money to pay for college and increase the number of students
participating in community service. Yet the overwhelming
majority of Work Study students today do their service on campus,
not in the community. In effect, they constitute an enormous pool of
cheap labor for college administrators.

http://www.ppionline.org/documents/AmeriBook/AmeriBook_Chap7.pdf

From the book: PPI | Book | May 23, 2005
The AmeriCorps Experiment and The Future of National Service
By Will Marshall and Marc Porter Magee

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=115&subsecid=145&contentid=253340

[Book Lover]

1. It's not voluntary if punishment awaits those who refuse

And I do not like this assertion that the nation is something I have to serve. All the nation deserves from me is my tax money. My society, my culture, my friends: all of those I will happily give my time to. But the work of my hands without compensation to a political entity? Never.

[man4allcats]

2. "But the work of my hands without compensation"

Well, they will pay you for being a part of their immoral undertakings before they get you killed. Seems fair enough, right? :sarcasm:

[NMMNG]

8. You're not very patriotic, are you?

Off to the re-education camp with you!

[Emit]

3. I'm kicking this for more exposure and to get others' reactions to this

I fear this might be an insidious plan to replace the draft.

[Donna Zen]

4. A new selective service...heh?

I wouldn't trust the DLC to wipe my cat's butt.

[Totally Committed]

6. Right on, Sister!

I agree 1000%!

TC

[JVS]

5. poop

[PDenton]

7. I'm probably a minority... but I'm in favor universal military service

But I think compulsory universal military service of a term for two years would be a good thing for the country. Other nations like Sweden, Dermark, or Germany have it... and look how few wars they get into.

I disagree with people who are oppossed to the idea you don't owe anything to your country. If you don't owe anything to the State, what's the point of having a government?

[amandabeech]

9. I'd leave Germany out of that argument, if I were you.

Lots of folks are still aware that Germany started WWI and WWII in Europe.

Not everyone there is keen on the Germans.

[Book Lover]

10. What is behind your assertion

that "universal" (which, by the way, can never be achieved) military service keeps a nation out of war? I thought that was the job of politicians and diplomats.

on edit: deleted extra verbage, and have to add a question: what branch of the military did/do you serve in?

[PDenton]

14. I was not in the military

Nor would it be an option for me due to disability (not a major disability but enough for me not to be able to enlist). At one time it might have been something I was interested in.

I believe if the elite had a vested interest in the military via their children's service, it might make them hesistant to start wars. It would make wars alot less popular unless most of the population could be convinced to support them. As it is now, the US government can continue to run a very unpopular war, because the sacrifice is not shared equally. People dislike the war, but they also feel no need to do anything to stop it.

[wuushew]

11. You would be removing 4 million + people a year from self directed activities

Delaying the age of going to college, the age of childbirth and career advancement by two years.

Instead of doing what a person is interested in or motivated to do, the government might just as well be wasting such an individual on latrine duty. Also since service is compelled, monetary compensation would not be subject to typical market rates.


Its a command economy using a slave labor pool of the young. Hardly equal sacrifice.

[PDenton]

15. other countries do it just fine

Most of the northern European countries have universal military participation for males and/or females and yet it doesn't ruin their society to require 2 years of service. In these countries fewer people go to college as well (many people learn trades in the military), and they also typically marry and have children later, so it is not an issue.

Many people in the US waste 4 years of their life going to college. For many people college is just a moratorium period with very little direction towards a particular goal. I don't see how it would necessarily be a waste to ask for some sacrifices participating in the defense of the country and its interests.

[PassingFair]

12. I WOULD be for it....

I USED to be for it...

until I came to understand that entities like
the DLC would hand my child's life over to the imperialist war
machine to line their OWN pockets.

They would be too easily used as captive fodder. NO WAY.
Not after what I've seen in this march to illegal and immoral
war, with precious little protest (outside the people in
the streets) to stand against it.

Will Marshall can kiss my ass.

[wuushew]

13. kick

:kick:

[Orangepeel]

16. Expanding national service opportunities is a good idea

I never would have joined the military when I was young, even though (or maybe because?) I'm from a military family. I didn't have the physical ability or the personality to deal with the authoritarianism.

But I would have done something like Americorps had it existed. Maybe something like that did exist, but if so, I didn't know about it. I think national service should be voluntary, but I also think it should be encouraged and rewarded.