Path: utzoo!hoptoad!ptsfa!pyramid!amdcad!decwrl!ucbvax!rutgers!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!sdcrdcf!ism780c!mikep
From: mikep@ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Draft
Message-ID: <8357@ism780c.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 87 12:45:11 GMT
References: <1812@culdev1.UUCP> <1307@saturn.ucsc.edu> <1247@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <8143@ism780c.UUCP> <5581@oberon.USC.EDU> <8209@ism780c.UUCP> <5767@oberon.USC.EDU>
Reply-To: mikep@ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica CA
Lines: 39

In article <5767@oberon.USC.EDU> gazit@ganelon.usc.edu (Hillel) writes:
> [ a lot of (ok, I admit) relevant stuff pertaining to wastefullness of
> "major-league" armies. ]

I concede your point about how armies waste resources.  Not because
I believe all of it, but because I lack the resources/motivation to
look it up.

However, you even admitted that compulsory service produced better armies.
Now, of what use is an army???  When I said that this country NEEDS
an army, someone posted a flame against that.  A lot of people quickly
showed that person how wrong she was.  

Now, is the trade-off between a good army and not having compulsory
draft worth it.  I mean, will not having everybody serve 2 years in
the service be worth having a inferior amry?  

It's up to each person.  I don't think so.  I think a good army
is one of the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS that a nation have.  If
a person is intellectually disposed, let that person serve
where the need is the greatest, in the laboratories or research
environments of the goverment.  However, there's not a hell
of a lot of people who could serve their country better in
a lab than out in the field, trudging through mud and fighting
for their country.  Actually, this is my opinion.  I don't
proclaim it to be fact.  And I mean percentage-wise, not an
absolute number.

Anyways, two years service is not a long time.  And if you are
outstanding enough to warrant a lab job, then you could continue
your research/what-have-you while serving your stint.  

It all could very well come down to:  "Is two years of your
life (that isn't thrown away, just loaned to the government) worth
your freedom???"  

It's a question each of us has to decide on our own.

-MikeP