Lord help me, I agree with Charlie Rangel!!!

There are over 20 million former Jarheads, Zoomies, Squids and Grunts, in the U.S – better known as veterans. And because we have a volunteer military, this revered population is expected to dwindle by 50 percent over the next 25 years. So we wondered, what if military service was mandatory?

“It'd be a better and stronger and more patriotic America,” said Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) who introduced the Universal National Service Act in 2003 and has been lobbying for it ever since. “If indeed a president decided that he is going to place our young people in harm’s way, the congress now has to go home and tell you why we need your kid.”

What we’re talking about is conscription, forcing every man and woman to serve their country. As in the 70’s, Americans may get desperate in how they dodge their responsibilities, but unlike the 100,000 that ran off to foreign countries, current dodgers may stay put, and hide behind their career.

"If we had mandatory service again, there would be ways of say working at a hospital or something. Working at a nursing home or those kinds of things,” said David Henderson, Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Graduate School of Business and Public Policy. “So I would see that as the way people use to get out of being into the military rather than moving to Canada or Sweden or wherever.”

What IS the world coming to, when I agree with Charlie Rangel?!!!

But on the serious side, I've been a proponent of National Service ever since I met a guy who was raised in Israel.  He was actually in the British Navy by choice.  But he had already done his Israeli Service, and because his mother was a Brit, he joined Her Majesty's Big Grey Canoe Club to see the world and to get more free training.

I'd never heard of any kind of 'national service' other than a military draft, so I listened to him for the 6 days we were together.  I've thought that it's exactly what this country needs to get us back where we once were.  If nothing else, I personally believe that it would kill some of the ME, ME, ME shit that our country NOW has so much of.

And as a veteran I am absolutely against mandatory military service.  But there are plenty of schools, hospitals, nursing homes, V.A Hospitals, National Parks etc, etc, etc that need working hands to keep them going.  I'll even go so far as to say, if you don't want to do ANY of those jobs, I've got your easy out.

You also give up your ability to get any federally backed student loans, FHA loans, farm loans, SBA loans or any such help, and you would not be able to vote.  If you don't want to help the country run, in other words, you sure as hell better not expect it to help you run!    

I have no hope that this will ever happen, but I can hope.

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Schteveo