[jyl]

I was not thinking that the military go out and draft a bunch of low-quality low-life hoodlums and try to "reprogram" them. The Army is not a charity.

I was rather thinking that the draft would reach into all groups of the population, including the higher-income, higher-education, children-of-the-professional-class segments who today very seldom serve in the military. And that the military could take the best of those kids, the ones who don't need "reprogramming".

Those kids probably wouldn't end up making the military their career, but they would (I think) be intelligent and capable soldiers, they and their parents would develop a personal stake in what our country does with our military and what resources we provide it with, and when some of those kids become politicians they would have had the experience and responsibility of serving in the military, right alongside kids from other backgrounds who they'd probably never have met in civilian life.

You'd still have volunteers who make the military their careers, they'd be the backbone of the force.

As for the reprogramming-needed kids - maybe there's still a way to use them, or more likely they get washed out. Again, our military isn't a charity.

Other countries have compulsory military service - Taiwan and Switzerland come to mind.

I'm thinking (maybe wishful thinking) if this might become a leveling force, so that this country doesn't evolve into two permanent classes: those who get sent to fight and those who send them.