Topic: Universal National Service
Universal National Service An argument for the induction of all high school graduated into a two-year program including military disciple and community serviceby Steve Love
(liberal)
Friday, September 14, 2007
Illegal immigration, the cost of the Iraq war, labor shortages, inner-city crime and drug use, English as the national language, costs of prisons: what do all these issues have in common? They all can be positively impacted by the ending the all-voluntary military and instituting Universal National Service two years of compulsory national service: the first learning language and other skills under strict military discipline and the second in community service, by providing services to combatants in the war zone now being outsourced at extravagant cost or in domestic community service: everything from disaster relief to drug counseling .from law enforcement to child care..
UNS would immediately put a plug in illegal immigration because the requirement of UMS would apply to these people and so, instead of the little game of catch-me-if-you-can aka "catch and return", persons found in the US who have not fulfilled their UNS obligation would not be sent back to their home country only to return as soon as they can get back to the border.They would be enlisted in the Army!There they would learn English, be given a decent place to live and would a year later be send out to provide, perhaps ESL language training to those too old for UNS or community restoration programs.Not having illegal workers driving down wages for legal immigrants and citizens will force the business community to more nearly pay workers a living wage instead of the least the traffic will bear.
UNS will put military people doing what military people did during WWII the era of what some have called the greatest generation - everything it takes to make an army a fighting force. Jobs now done by contractors under lucrative cost-plus contracts would be done by regular military personnel. And so, kids without marketable skills will be given marketable skills such as food preparation, transportation, naval and air piloting, diesel mechanics, A&P repair, HVAC installation and repair, road and bridge construction, building construction, language, martial arts, medical care, computer repair and software design, etc. No longer will kids, who can't find a job and so join the military as a last resort, be inducted into the military essentially to learn how to kill we have not yet decided to follow the outsourcing philosophy to its logical conclusion: a totally mercenary military force and then returned to the civilian work force with little or no training in these various basic infrastructure skills now being done by contractors, but which, if they had them, be the basis for building a productive life for them and a family. UNS would be a bridge to the future.
Then there is the real cost of crime what illegality takes out of the community because this activity is not taxable, because they destroy communities (think meth and other drugs), what it costs to feed, clothe and house our non-taxpaying, non-violent inmate population; and the loss to the community in terms of human productivity wasted in prisons.Think of it.We spend billions to send a child through the school years and then turn him or her out on the street without a marketable skill where he or she can easily fall into a life of crime or drug use and end up in prison.What a waste!UNS would take that person, when he or she graduated from high school or upon obtaining the age of 18, and direct them into one of the branches of the military where they would learn the respect of authority and poise of a warrior and given marketable and social skills necessary to succeed in a modern global business environment.
UNS will cost billions but so does ignoring the problems UNS would address. Of course it will, but so do all these other things we are doing, but the problems they are supposed to address, seem to be getting worse.In fairness, the cost of UNS needs to be compared with the cost of illegal immigration, housing convicts, community blight, drugs use and crime and the social fragmentation associated with ethnic divisions; and the value of the benefits UNS would bring to society.Under a UNS plan the military will no longer labor under the stigma of being, as some suggest, composed of those who cannot make it in the broader community those who join the military as a means to escape the dead-end street of low employability but will be filled with kids from all walks of life. The military will be a true melting pot of American society where young men and women will face, perhaps for the first time, the egalitarianism that is at the foundation of all true democracies.Kids from gated communities to ghettos will walk side by side and serve their country on the basis of their skills and no longer be divided by the accident of birth.This will delay college for those heading that way but will result in a more mature, disciplined and, perhaps, larger student population, something not to be discounted.
Will it solve all our problems? No, but it will provide a foundation for the future which all Americans will have a part in shaping. It will give a basic foundation of discipline, respect for authority,common language skills and a sense of ownership and shared sacrifice in America's future.It will become the time which all true Americans can look back upon with pride and, perhaps, when they were given the critical tools to become productive and proud Americans.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Steve Love only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Steve Love is
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Interesting concept. Other countries do it, why not the US. But, how does this differ from government-enforced indentured servitude, a draft, or slavery for that matter?
Of course there are merits to your argument in terms of positive benefits to individuals and society. However, the idea of a draft or universal military conscription or "service" is anathema to liberty. Essentially, these children would be slaves for the two years you have outlined, with no control over their own decisions. The state simply has no right to do such a thing, nor does society over individuals. A country which cannot produce volunteers to defend itself is not worth saving in the first place.
Universal National Service is a blatant violation of the 13th amendment which prohibits involuntary servitude. If enacted it would, for the first time in history, make the American people servants of the state. We should fight to the death to prevent such a thing from ever happening. In America the people are the masters and the government is the servant, not the other way around.
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