XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Sit Down and Shut Up, Stan.

It all started with a question. In the summer of 2012, Gen. Stanley McChrystal was wrapping up an onstage conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival conference. He was asked if the US should reinstate the draft. Yes, he replied, but not to grow the size of the armed forces. He argued that since only 1%…

It all started with a question.

In the summer of 2012, Gen. Stanley McChrystal was wrapping up an onstage conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival conference.

He was asked if the US should reinstate the draft.

Yes, he replied, but not to grow the size of the armed forces.

He argued that since only 1% of Americans serve their country, America lacks in shared experience — there’s almost no common background between the upper class and the middle class, the educated and the uneducated, the rural and the urban.

The solution, then, wouldn’t be mandatory military service, but national service — programs like Teach for America and City Year, but made accessible to a full quarter of a yearly cohort rather than an elite few.

via Gen. Stanley McChrystal Has A Plan For All Young Americans To Serve Their Country.

This is  a recurring issue with retired general officers. After so long in the service, a very cloistered environment, they forget the purpose of the military, with its spartan lifestyle and service to the state, is to secure the blessings of liberty, not merely to secure the state.

Compulsory service in the military is very easy to justify via the Constitution, given that Congress has the explicit power to raise armies.

Compulsory service to the state, outside military conscription, is both unconstitutional via the 13th Amendment, and abhorrent to the very principals of freedom that nation was founded upon.

GEN McChrystal, who has in the past shown moments of poor judgment, should go back and read the Federalist Papers again, and try to glean a better understanding of the relation of the citizen (not subject) and the state.

The state exists only to serve the citizen. Not the citizen for the state.

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  1. ultimaratioregis

    Ol’ Manly Stanley also abhors our Second Amendment rights. Just as Dempsey stomps all over our rights under the First, and Alexander and Cartwright the Fourth.

    “…support and defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL ENEMIES, foreign and domestic…”

    Including ones who wear/wore uniforms.

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  2. Old AF Sarge

    I’m with you on the “sit down and shut up, Stan” but in regards to –

    Compulsory service in the military is very easy to justify via the Constitution, given that Congress has the explicit power to raise armies.

    Compulsory service to the state, outside military conscription, is both unconstitutional via the 13th Amendment, and abhorrent to the very principals of freedom that nation was founded upon.

    You lost me. How is “compulsory service in the military” different from “compulsory service to the state”? The 13th Amendment states:

    Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

    Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

    Where is the “outside military conscription” clause in that amendment?

    Not trying to be a smarta$$ here Brad, I have just always been curious how conscription (which by its very nature is involuntary) is consistent with the 13th Amendment. The power to raise armies does not give the Congress the power of abrogating the 13th Amendment in my mind.

    Again, just curious. My opinion is that if you have to draft people to fight a war, it’s probably a war most of the country doesn’t support. Or there is, at best, lukewarm support. If a cause is worth dying for, people will volunteer. I am not a big believer in “government knows best.”

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  3. xbradtc

    To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

    To provide and maintain a Navy;

    Butler v. Perry and Arver v. US seem to be the determining case law that say conscription is not a violation of the 13th Amendment. Of interest, the court looked at another duty to the state one might object to as involuntary servitude, one I’d never considered before, jury duty. You can be compelled to serve on a jury under penalty of law.

    Interestingly, Butler v. Perry seems to undercut my argument against compulsory national service outside of military conscription.

    For the record, I wasn’t arguing that military conscription was a good idea (at least, not currently) merely that it was plainly within the scope of Congress’ constitutional powers.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. David Navarre

    Sarge, did you miss reading about the draft in WWII? Despite the overwhelming support of the American people, the draft was utilized. Not sure of the percentage that served who were draftees, but there were plenty. (Wikipedia claims you could only be drafted after 1942, rather than enlist, but I find that hard to believe.) Additionally, draftees were generally not reluctant. Some even served in elite units and many served with distinction.

    Additionally, we had a peacetime draft after WWII, despite the fact that it was… peacetime. This continued until 1973. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_States

    So, any thought that a draft is ONLY instituted if it’s a war that most of the country does not support is erroneous.

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  5. xbradtc

    Yep. By 1943, voluntary enlistments were suspended, and all accessions were via the draft. That was mostly a manpower management issue, as the Army noted that the Navy and Army Air Force were creaming the quality candidates (via voluntary enlistment at 17 years, mostly) and unfairly skewing the force quality across the services.

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  6. Quartermaster

    I got into an argument with the Ops Ossifer on the Sylvania one day. he claimed no one was ever drafted into the Navy. I suggested he check Naval History for the period 1943-1945. He said he would and I never heard back.

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  7. timactual

    I think we should have a permanent draft, with alternate public service for conscientious objectors and those who are physically unable to serve in the military. Pretty much the system we had before 1973.

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  8. SFC Dunlap (Ret.) 173d RVN

    I’m with you timactual….to instill a sense of working for something greater than oneself. if one is a pacifist I have no problem with them teaching in an inner city ghetto, or Native American Reservation etc.

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  9. Shaun Evertson

    The ee-lites will avoid it, the poooooooor will be unable to avoid it, and the 40 percent of non-gubmint working Americans will pay for it.

    Just sayin’

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