Field Marshal Rommel said of Maori troops " If I had an army of them I would have taken Cairo by the weekend and Baghdad in 3 weeks.
Tattoos didn’t seem to effect their fighting ability.
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I personally disagree with the recruiter’s sentiment. I think one of the pluses of getting people from diverse backgrounds to work together as a team is the realization we are not all that different. I believe it would create greater common ground and reduce the “us versus them” mentality and widespread political polarization.
Serving in the military also means you’ve put some skin in the game whether or not you were ever in harm’s way. But that is just my 2 cents.
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One of the times I was in North Korea, in Nampo, on the other side of the dam which is their port & military base tied up into one. The captain of our tug & myself were walking to the seaman center & a column of female soldiers were marching towards us, from the direction we were going. I was a younger man, mid twenties, fair hair with hazel eyes. When the column was a few feet away from us I could see all eyes were on us. I winked once, at all of them, because they all semmed to be trying to make eye contact. They all started giggling, the one in front maybe froze up & all fumbled into each other. A wink distracted every dang one of them. One wink & completely disorganized. Knowing human nature & how females are treated in North & South Korea, fighting platoons of female North Korean soldiers would be easiest battles ever as long as they were singles with no kids at home to give them reasons NOT to surrender.
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Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
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Can imagine what would happen if You put Your pants down 
Concur. I played my last game of rugby (just a friendly match, I was told beforehand in deference to my greying eminence) in Singapore the day after the usual run ashore on the first night.
The friendly match turned out to be the Kiwi battalion stationed there. Perhaps they were friendly in a Maori way, but it hurt badly nevertheless.
I buried my boots at sea after that.
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That sounds like DEI. 
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If you wish to describe the draft that way it is certainly your prerogative. I think otherwise.
I’m actually in favor of a draft if done correctly .
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Anyway, today is apparently National Popcorn Day which is, of course, prophetic. You’ll need lots of popcorn to celebrate the rebirth of your nation. Lots of good stuff coming, perhaps even a fully manned USN.
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As the USA takes a political laxative today we are well aware of what is to come.
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The D part. In a meritocracy, Equity (equality of outcome) is anathema, and Inclusion just means everyone must embrace the suck. That’s already supposed to be in place, and was, until the army tried those little ‘I am butthurt’ pinkslips for recruits to tyrannize the training cadre.
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As am I. I’m more accurately in favor of a broader National Service Obligation. Said obligation would encompass some services other than military, such as health and education in underderved areas.
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Yeah, pass me a bowl please. I’ll enjoy it while listening to his people explain that he didn’t promise day 1 tariffs. Then we’ll go from there.
I agree. Many of our allies embrace the idea of shared national service for all citizens. One would think all the self proclaimed ‘patriots’ would be in favor. There are a lot of jobs folks could do for a year or two to help out if they opted out of the military. Shared responsibility and being exposed to different people would be a great education.
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I think the added benefit would be bringing young people together across a spectrum of backgrounds and perspectives. There’s nothing quite as bonding and unifying as shared labor and shared service and I think the healthy sort of patriotism, that we are all in this together, is sadly continuing to diminish over time.
I would definitely stipulate no exemption for any class or privileged group. I think there is genuine wrong when the wealthy families continue to benefit most from a system that they typically contribute to least when it comes to sending family members to be trained to defend our shores.
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That is something many of us learned on ships, especially on deep sea ships. We worked with people of many nationalities and backgrounds. It changes one’s perspective. Rotary has a program called Rotary International. They give scholarships to high school students to study abroad for one year. They have to go to school in a country that has a different language from their native language and spend one year. The parents are not allowed to visit for 6 months. It is a great program. The originator of the program said if all students were able to participate he hoped it would reduce wars . I had a child in the program and was warned the child would not be the same when returned. They were right. A better kid came back and is doing very well 10 years later.
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First I would like to say I like reading the discussion. I don’t hear any ill will or malice. While I don’t share many of the opinions they are well thought out & expressed. All that being said, I feel like I’m reading a forum from Superman’s Bizarro world. I know that the folks on here talking favorably about a draft are traditionally left of center, likely Democrat voters. From reading past threads I know they also have strong pro-Ukraine, continuation/escalation stance on that conflict. Being a Gen-X’er who grew up listening to anti-establishment, anti-war Greenday, Rage Against The Machine & watching Kurt Lauder on MTV News, I really had a misconception about left leaning opinion holders in the generation before mine. Screw a draft imo. All wars are politics by other means & very seldom has our politics been worth dieing over. We sent 37,000 young Americans to their deaths because we didn’t like a coutries economic system. We sent +4,500 US service members to their deaths because someone showed us some pictures of flatbed trucks parked in a desert. We sent +2,400 brave Americans to their deaths to catch some mass murderers then give many of those terrorists free lifetime memberships to club Fed plus set a bunch of them free. Screw a draft imo. I’ll bust my kids knees in with a bat before I let Uncle Sam force them to go die in Ukraine to protect a gas pipeline for western Europe or to die in a desert in Syria looking for empty flatbed trucks.
"All wars are politics by other means & very seldom has our politics been worth dieing over. We sent 37,000 young Americans to their deaths because we didn’t like a coutries economic system. "
True and the WE that sent them were politicians who for the most part have never served their country and didn’t have to worry about their own son or daughter being sent off to fight. Chicken hawks is the common term. If every politician that wanted to be in office had to show that they had served for two years in some form of national service whether the military or helping in schools or healthcare before running for office the country would be better off. It’s not that hard many countries have the same requirement, they get on quite well and no one went bankrupt while serving their country. They might not like it at the time but they tell their kids to suck it up, it’s your duty.
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I’m in favor of mandatory service but please be aware I actively protested against both the Iraq and Afghanistan war before either even started. To this day I remember being in my 20s and standing on a freeway overpass with my father, mother, aunt, uncle and grandma all holding signs expressing opposition to the looming invasion of Iraq. My uncle was a Navy vet and I had one cousin in the Navy and another in the Air Force at the time. The invasion of Iraq in particular was an horrible and unjustified notion and many of us knew that before it unfolded. We tried to make our voices heard, unfortunately we were completely drowned out by the chorus of post 9/11 “patriotism”. Those foolish military adventures made my traditionally Republican parents vote Democratic in every election since.
As much as I support the fight of Ukrainian people I would be appalled if the US ever sent our soldiers to die in that fight. I believe we should absolutely support the fight to defend democracy and sovereignty, but using our own forces should be an absolute last resort and reserved only for those unique instances when the moral imperative for the use of force is absolutely unequivocal. I also firmly believe that war powers rest in Congress as the constitution clearly states. The US should NEVER fight a war that is not first supported by a resolution from Congress, and then comes with an open and official declaration of war even if it isn’t against an actual nation state.
I honestly think mandatory service, not a draft, but EVERY US citizen serving from age 18 to age 20 would actually decrease the risk of US involvement in war going forward. I’m pretty sure that there will never be another “draft” in the history of our nation.
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