{"id":2115,"date":"2007-08-15T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-15T19:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=2115"},"modified":"2007-08-15T14:38:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-15T19:38:00","slug":"military-ambivalence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=2115","title":{"rendered":"military ambivalence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><lj user=ls56> poasted a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/id\/2172225\/pagenum\/all\">link to a slate story discussing the draft<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p>I think the article&#8217;s main point is that you can&#8217;t go around conducting multiple major military operations with a small army.  It rightly notes that there isn&#8217;t political support for the draft.  Our military is stretched to the breaking point even with civilian contractors. (a.k.a. mercenaries)  Q.E.D. We need to reduce the scope and\/or number of our military engagements.  It&#8217;s that or the draft.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m of two minds here.  <\/p>\n<p>One, I think there&#8217;s a lot to be said for mandatory universal military service, with possible substitutions of other types of public service.  It gives everyone an appreciation of and stake in the nation&#8217;s military operations that they might not otherwise get.  It builds communal bonds.<\/p>\n<p>Two, I think of the reasons I was unwilling to go ROTC when I went to CMU. (sexuality was least among them)  I don&#8217;t trust the political process that runs a soldier&#8217;s life.  I&#8217;m not willing to turn off my own judgment, salute and say &#8220;Yes, sir!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;re both driven by the same motive, a desire for the ultimate expression of force to be employed responsibly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>poasted a link to a slate story discussing the draft. I think the article&#8217;s main point is that you can&#8217;t go around conducting multiple major military operations with a small army. It rightly notes that there isn&#8217;t political support for the draft. Our military is stretched to the breaking point even with civilian contractors. (a.k.a. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=2115\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;military ambivalence&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}