Army in Israel and US, was Off Topic (Important Legislation)

snazzzybird carmenharms at yahoo.com
Mon Sep 13 16:39:20 UTC 2004


--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Marita Jan <maritajan at y...> 
wrote:
> I'll go with what may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't think 
mandatory
> military service is a bad idea.  I'd like to see men and women have 
to
> serve 2 years at the age of 18, with deferments for health reasons 
but not
> just for college.  Sorry, the military needs educated persons as 
well. 
> There's a reason some people in this country feel like wars are 
fought on
> the backs of the poor while wealthier kids skip off to the safety of
> college, instead.  
> 
> I think the Israeli army as a great example of mandatory service 
that
> works.  
> 
> MJ
> 
> 
snazzzybird sez --

Yes, mandatory service in the Israeli army works, and it does provide 
many benefits to society beyond a strong military.  It gives all 
citizens a common frame of reference: for the most part, everyone has 
served, or is serving; everyone's parents served; everyone's children 
will serve.  It's a unifying factor.  And I totally agree that having 
educated persons in the military is beneficial all around.

However, there's one important difference between Israel and the 
United States.  Israel is such an embattled country, it literally 
would not survive without a strong and prepared army.  Everyone in 
the country knows this, and civilian support for the army is strong.  
My son moved to Israel three years ago, and he's currently serving in 
the Israeli Army.  He says when he's in uniform, perfect strangers 
will come up to him and thank him for what he's doing.  

The US's survival has not been at stake since World War II.  When it 
was at stake, our citizens supported the military as wholeheartedly 
and fervently as Israelis do today.  Everybody wanted to enlist, even 
those who were too old or had disqualifying physical conditions.  I 
don't think this is just because they were "the greatest generation"; 
I believe the same thing would happen today if those circumstances 
arose again.  

If the US had a policy of universal military service today, we'd have 
a whole lot of people "all dressed up with no place to go".  I fear 
that someone would then *find* them a place to go; that this would 
result in even more US military action for the wrong reasons -- such 
as for oil, or for trade interests, or so some politico won't 
appear "soft on Communism".  

Just my two cents.

--snazzzybird





More information about the HPFGU-OTChatter archive