Natalia Blinova
Reason and Argument
Prof. William Cohn
5 January 2015
Word count 1822
Should military service be mandatory?
For my thesis I have chosen a topic of mandatory military service for all citizens, since I find it as a very important subject because there are many aspects to discuss. It is a topic that brings a lot of controversy and divides people opinion in half.
Should the military service be mandatory or not? This issue has always been of great importance to discuss. Let us turn first to the definition of military service. According to Longman Dictionary, “military service is the system in which every adult, or every male adult, in a country has to spend a period of time in the army, navy, or air force.” The
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Have you ever thought about those people who were fighting in the World Wars or any other? Those people were fighting for their country, for their families and future generations. If military service was mandatory, people would not have a choice to go or not to go to the army. They would have to defend their Motherland anyway. This could bring them up as mature and responsible men. We should consider the fact that many young people nowadays do not appreciate what they have and take life as given, without having any responsibilities. Mandatory military service, in my opinion will make them more mature and responsible for their actions. According to the analysis among Israeli youth, military service indeed has a positive impact on males. For instance, people improve “problem-solving capacity, better ability to cope with physical difficulties …self-confidence, and willingness to take responsibilities.” Many of these people never experienced hard routine or had to follow strict rules, which makes them less prepared for the adult world and also for working life. Serving as a soldier should teach them the respect they will need for the future life and prepare them better to be law-abiding citizen of their …show more content…
It is quite common today to hear the opinion that military service should not exist, and that it should be cancelled. Becoming a fully neutral state with a symbolic number of public servants will be the most suitable option. I am fully confident that neutrality of your country is not always the best approach: if you live quietly and peacefully it does not necessarily mean that others will live also with respect to you. In addition, no one forces you to build a military career if you do not want that. The only thing you should do is to serve to your country up to two years and protect its citizens. Imagine a country, which has no mandatory military service, which is not able to defend itself. Can we actually call it a state? Historically, if a young man did not serve in the army, he was not considered a real man, and moreover it was considered as a disgrace. We should be aware that modern world is not full of excessive love and harmony in all countries, so heads of governments pay much attention to the issues of the
People who join the army express patriotism and sacrifice
From the beginning of the United States’ history, conflict has always been prevalent. The need for armed forces continually grows, especially in times of war, as the fight for freedom becomes more challenging. Conscription, better known as the draft, was first introduced during the Civil War as a way to get more individuals involved in the military to fill vacant positions. The practice of the draft was finally discontinued in favor of an all-volunteer military system, when the need for troops was no longer necessary. After almost two decades of being involved overseas, the demand for armed troops is imperative once again.
While some were patriotic and wanted to help to fight for their country, others thought it was a waste of lives and that war was stupid. Among the people who went to war, many of them fought and returned home. Some strongly believed that conscription was needed in order to maintain full strength on the battlefields. One of the main reason that triggered conscription was that
Citizens gain an understanding and appreciation for the sacrifices people in the military make. However, despite this… without the recognition of human rights, peace still can’t be achieved, whether its individual, cultural, or gender based rights. Even though forced labour is considered a violation of human rights, the practice of compulsory military service isn’t. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights only moved towards recognizing the right of individuals to object to military service in 1987.
Throughout history, countries are inevitably pulled into conflicts that result in war. These conflicts usually occur because of interests in: economic gain, territorial gain, religion, and nationalism. America, like every country, needs a military to defend itself, especially when tensions arise in other parts of the world and when militia numbers start to decrease. This then allows the government to draft its population to serve in the military. People argue that young men and women’s bright lives are often cut short, and not allowed their Constitutional right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, but there are many benefits for the nation and the individual by serving one’s country.
The military draft has been a controversial topic for many years in American society. The idea of a military draft has drastically changed between World War II and the Vietnam War. During the times of World War II, military service and draft was widely accepted by many Americans. During the World War II era, citizens felt that they had an “unlimited liability to perform military service when required by the state” (James 2). But as time progressed, military service and draft in the Vietnam War, constructed many doubts amongst many Americans.
Should the Draft Be Reinstated? (Consequences of the United States Military Draft) The United States issued a military draft in 1940 in order to fill the spots of the armed forces that were not being filled voluntarily. It was a safety net in order for America to know that we would have back up if anything were to happen in the world.
It would be horrible for a husband to be yanked from his wife and kids, then to find out he died fighting in a war he didn’t even sign up for. If a man has children, or his wife is expecting, he should be exempted. Some would argue that the mandatory draft was necessary, that “the U.S. military must remain prepared to fight a really big war that might require a much larger force” (Barno/Bensahel). To protect against that, there would be safeguards put into the mandatory draft. If the amount of soldiers in the military by volunteer dropped to a point that was too low to fight, the protections such as college and family, would be stripped, and the age range upped from 18-25 to 18-30.
During the 1970’s, the drinking age was raised from eighteen years of age to nineteen years of age, soon after it was adjusted to twenty-one years of age. However, in the time since, there has been growing discontent with the current laws that restrict military personnel who are under twenty-one years old, when they are serving their country, to legally purchase alcohol. On account of the age for drinking being higher than the age for enlisting in the military, the drinking age restriction should be adjusted accordingly to allow military personnel to purchase alcohol. As expected, bringing this issue up creates a multitude of opinions, all of which are full of stories and statistics for or against adjusting the minimum legal age to drink.
In most cases, people often do better in situations that they want to be in. By demanding men to go to war when they rather be somewhere else, they are not going to do their very best. If you have 60% of men who do not want to be there and only 40% of men who want to be there, your army force will not do as well if you had 100% of men wanting to be there. According to the University of Warwick, they proved that people who are happy work harder than people who are unhappy, in their study they said, “They found happiness made people around 12% more productive, while unhappy workers proved 10% less productive.” This statistic shows that forcing people to enlist will not make their army force better and stronger, in fact it does the exact opposite.
From the moment I was born I was considered a military brat, I was born in Hawaii at tripler hospital because my mom was in the army and stationed there, my biological father was in the marines. When my mom remarried when I was 7, she married a man who was in the Navy. Everyone thinks being a Military brat just means you know more than other people because you 've been more places and seen more things and you get a lot of stuff you want. This is not true at all. Coming from a military background means you never have stability, you are held to a higher standard than all the other kids, and sometimes it makes you want to be in the military and only focus on that.
With that being said there are always those that are exempt from military service, as well as those who cannot be exempt and will inevitably have their livelihoods changed for the worse. Due to evidence presented in previous conscription efforts, possible economic effects, infringement of civil liberties, and other priorities, a mandatory military conscription should not be a possibility in the United States. There have been many occasions in the past in which a mandatory
William Bainbridge Ethics Paper Abstract: This brief but informative paper will cover the ethical aspects and implications of sexual harassment in the Military. Sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination and often displayed in the form of unwanted attention or unwanted sexual advances or unwanted sexual actions. Specifically, this paper will focus intently on sexual harassment in the Army and the problems that entails. The ethical problems regarding sexual harassment are significant because of the unique environment that the Army conducts its self.
The United States should call for mandatory military service to ensure the freedom and liberty for the children of tomorrow. A lot of people do not know the United States has called for mandatory military service before, just with a different name, the draft. The draft has been “employed by the federal government of the United States in four conflicts: the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam war. “This makes five different occasions when Americans were drafted for a total of 16.5 million people” ( Random Fact of The Day 1). 16.5 million people were drafted and under 1.25 million died in these wars, which is about a 7.6% death rate.
Throughout my childhood and adolescent years, I always had a dream of joining the military. Though it was a choice, I still did not have any inside information of what it would be like, and the requirements and specifics of the Army. It wasn't until 2005 when I decided to join the United States Army that all my concerns and questions were answered by a recruit; and I was guided through the whole process to enter and prep for the Army. If it was not for the confidences and motivation of my recruiter back in 2005, I might have not made my leap and probably would not be in this uniform today. Becoming a member of the United States Army recruiting team means having a physical and mental toughness in order to perform efficiently.