Should the United States have Mandatory Military Conscription?

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Recommended: Freedom demands price and sacrifice

The price of freedom should be borne by all, rich or poor. I learned this first hand as a United States Army Recruiter and a volunteer soldier who fought in two wars representing my country. As a military recruiter from 1971 to 1991, I was tasked with soliciting men and women who were high school graduates to enlist into the United States Army. Often times I would call a home to speak to a graduate about joining the army, and a mother would answer; I would tell her the purpose of my call, and often times her answer would be “not my son”! I would often replay, “well mam, if not your son, then whose son”! I very seldom got an answer but I often wondered if I could read her mind, would she be thinking about whether I should be contacting those young men across town she saw hanging out on a street corner at all hours. Was she thinking that those young men from their low income neighborhood should be the ones that pay the ultimate price of freedom?

Would the consideration of my solicitation been a little easier had her son and those young men across town been subject to military conscription? Military conscription can be defined as, the massed military enlistment of national citizens (today recognized in the USA as "the draft"); this concept was devised during the French Revolution. Its purpose was to enable the French Republic to defend itself from the attacks of European monarchies (Encarta). An important figure credited with the start of this concept is Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, a Military Marshal of France whom enlisted as a private in the French royal army and rose to command armies. Jourdan stated: "Any Frenchman is a soldier and owes himself to the defense of the nation (Encarta)." As a nation we have shown our belief in that quo...

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...a is under attack. We have to remember, “the price of freedom should be borne by all, rich or poor”.

Works Cited

Encarta MSN: Conscription, Retrieved June 11, 2010 from

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561714/conscription.html

Hammons, S. The American Chronicle: Military draft still looms: Recruiting for volunteer force

Should be more flexible, Retrieved June 11, 2010, from

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/16750

West's Encyclopedia of American Law (2008): Compulsory enrollment and induction into the

military. Retrieved June 11, 2010, from http://legaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/

Mandatory+military+service

Williams, A. (2006) Newsmax.com: Mandatory Military Service Would Benefit the U.S,

Retrieved June 11, 2010 from

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/6/18/162837.shtml

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