canndo
Well-Known Member
Read something else on an argument to reinstate the draft - as a failsafe measure against unwarrented wars.
I have often argued against the draft because I know that the priveliged tend to have their children passed over while the poor and the disadvantaged are still pitched into wars conceived or fomented by those who have nothing to lose and lots to gain. So long, that is, that their sons or daughters are not forced into the equation.
What the author talks about however is that a volunteer army is self selecting for a certain sort of individual, one that may well not be descerning as to the orders he or she obeys. This article was written after the Mai Lai incident and long before abu Graib and all the other nonsense surrounding our most recent wars.
I still believe that a a truly universal induction into the service can never be possible in this country but I wonder if it might be wise to include an "ethics" officer in each unit, someone who is not quite subjugated into the military ideology of doing what you are commanded to do. It is clear that no military person is to follow illegal orders but that to my knowlege is never stressed - that is, a soldier is trained to follow orders, to fire his weapon, to work within the chain of command but he is not trained to understand the ethics of his service and without that it is difficult for, especially young people to apply their sense of decency to prolonged armed conflict.
I have often argued against the draft because I know that the priveliged tend to have their children passed over while the poor and the disadvantaged are still pitched into wars conceived or fomented by those who have nothing to lose and lots to gain. So long, that is, that their sons or daughters are not forced into the equation.
What the author talks about however is that a volunteer army is self selecting for a certain sort of individual, one that may well not be descerning as to the orders he or she obeys. This article was written after the Mai Lai incident and long before abu Graib and all the other nonsense surrounding our most recent wars.
I still believe that a a truly universal induction into the service can never be possible in this country but I wonder if it might be wise to include an "ethics" officer in each unit, someone who is not quite subjugated into the military ideology of doing what you are commanded to do. It is clear that no military person is to follow illegal orders but that to my knowlege is never stressed - that is, a soldier is trained to follow orders, to fire his weapon, to work within the chain of command but he is not trained to understand the ethics of his service and without that it is difficult for, especially young people to apply their sense of decency to prolonged armed conflict.
