Why The Military Should Not Be Mandatory

“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” is from a famous inaugural address from late President John F. Kennedy (BrainyQuote. Xplore). This sentence has a lot of meaning on it. By birth, we have to have some patriotism. If we cannot love our country, then we cannot love anything in this world. People serve their country in many different ways. Some become politicians, some join the army, and some just join the social service agency. There are also arguments about serving the country. Some suggest that joining army or serving the country should be done from the early age. However, I think that young people should not be required to do public services.
Forcing an individual to serve
in the military will not only interfere with individual freedom but will also damage morale and effectiveness in the military. Because today's military is an AVF, soldiers are more ambitious and effective in combat and morale is high (Levine 641). They actually want to serve our country and take military values very seriously. Now when we add conscripts to the mix, we are risking military effectiveness and will make our NCOs and officers have a harder time training these conscripts who are unmotivated and unwilling to put in 100% on their jobs. When combat arises, they might even be the first to run away from conflict leaving behind fellow comrades to die in combat. Motivated soldiers who volunteer win battles and keep the military an efficient and effective machine against the enemy. An AVF will make things easier for our NCOs and officers and will fill the military with brave soldiers who believe in and value the military. Remember that when we make something mandatory, it is most likely that people who do something that is mandatory will lack the motivation and will only make things much more difficult.
War is never an easy decision, but military service should not be mandatory.
The rules and regulations of the military do not suit everyone. If a person is forced to go into the military and eventually finds out they just can’t make the grade, they end up with a dishonorable discharge that is an embarrassment for the rest of their lives. As long as the military provides free training and schooling there will always be people enough who will volunteer. The U.S. military has plenty of volunteers who sign up for duty. With enough benefits due to military service, plenty of Americans sign up willingly every year. Military service in the United States should never be mandatory. If the war is justified, enough people will join the force of their own volition.
I can see the benefits of having mandatory military service, and it is not that people will be able to "fight" for their freedom and "earn" it. The benefits are that it will teach people, make them more fit, and have a higher chance to implement true respect. However, what is the point if it is forced? By forcing something like this onto people who don't want it, we essentially remove a freedom that people enjoy, the freedom of choice. The military should be something that people choose, not something that is required, otherwise it will end up like public school, and people won't value it -they would hate
it.
Not talking about a draft like during the Vietnam, not everyone is required to go to war, unless that person voluntarily chooses to (BBC, Vietnam).
Basically, many countries in the world like Singapore, Norway, Germany, etc., have required military or civil service for all young men and sometimes women after their secondary education. In Germany, for example, young men are required to do a nine month paid training with the military, or if they cannot due to medical conditions, a nine month paid community service job (Ricks 646). After that, they can pursue a free college education subsidized by the country or job training. I think this is a very good system because, being a future American, I am appalled that people here are in such a weak position at that critical age going into adulthood. They drop out of high school or college, they have unstable jobs, and they put themselves in a position where they lose all the opportunity they have to make themselves successful in life or useful to the world. Not to mention many Americans are extremely individualistic, materialistic, and superficial.
Mandatory service is not service, it’s slavery. When you are not willing to do it don’t do it. Enforced community service teaches nothing .You take a bunch of students and make them do something they might or might not want to do. We already do that with school “for their own good” and just look at the dropout rates. Have we ever tried to force someone to do something ? Do they do it as well
as they would have had they chosen to do it? No, they don’t. This is a question every writer or a policy maker should understand.
Not all people are built for fighting in a war environment. Why should a scientific mind die fighting for the people he could be helping scientifically? We do have to understand a war draft in a time of great need, but we should save people who could have better use off the front for the low priority on the draft. I being a diploma in Electronics Engineering believe that human soldiers may be obsolete in the future, we'll have robots that are controlled remotely or are autonomous and will be able to do anything a human soldier can do and better. No human, even with any amount of genetic engineering, will be able to match machine soldiers with so many advantages. In reality, there's no way Techcom could have won a war with machines that don't need to eat, sleep, never get tired, never miss, don't make mistakes, or more accurate, and can do everything better, faster and longer than any human could(Terminator, Wiki ). Saving a human life is a greater achievement then winning a war. At least a mother will not lose her child.