Who is editing wikipedia?

gratitude and humility are great when they're from the heart, to fit his line of thinking, it would be great to smack everyone and tell them "SAY THANK YOU!"

of course that is what some people think is the best way to teach gratitude, not by pointing out good reasons to be grateful, sort of like the recruiters for the volunteer armed forces do...

similarly, humility is great when a person realizes he's very small next to the universe, or that there is someone who he has to look up to, just because he realizes how great this person is.

if someone stronger than i am comes up and yells at me, i suppose that's humbling, but it's just not the same experience or same kind of growth. it's not setting any example.

what follows from a draft is that you may be free, but you're also a slave to a system that can order you to your death. i suppose there's a lesson there if you sign up, and i suppose there's a lesson there if you don't, but if you didn't volunteer, the lesson seems to be... lessened...

if all the people that wanted a draft simply enlisted themselves or their children, we'd never need one, ever.

but we're talking about the humility and gratitude *of others*, not about practicing what you preach.

It's ignorant to think that by virtue of being in the armed forces, you will absorb or learn humility and gratitude. Humility and gratitude for what?

This thesis is wholly unsupported by the reams of retired generals who clearly have not learned their lessons of their service, and by the countless patriots who also seem to be anti-war, anti-military and, anti-everything Foofie and his/her ilk stand for.

Fortunately, Foofie and their ilk are a dying breed as evidenced by the implosion of the entire neoconservative movement.

Gratitude and humility is just what every citizen of the U.S. should have for the privilege of living in the U.S. That's just simple ethical behavior, I believe.

The benefits of a universal draft are:

The other military services would get a better quality of enlistee, since during the times of a draft many young men joined another service (they possibly didn't want to become a soldier in the Army). The number of enlistees in the other services was therefore much greater, and those other branches of the service (Air Force, Navy) could pick the best qualified enlistees. A percentage of all enlistees do make the service a career, and therefore the overall level of expertise goes up in these other very high tech services.

Immigrants that truly value becoming a U.S. citizen would more likely come to the U.S., since those that just want to live in an immigrant enclave and enjoy the materialistic benefits of the U.S., while not assimilating, would not likely come to the U.S., if their children would have to join the military in a universal draft.

A universal draft would be fair warning to immigrants that one must assimilate to the western American culture, since in the military religious clothing, etc. would not be tolerated (and women would be drafted too).

A universal draft would help to make people in the U.S. truly an American people, since the experience of the military service would likely lessen the old ethnic/regional/religious/racial identities that keeps many U.S. citizens from thinking they are really one people - Americans.

A universal draft would eliminate an enemy using the "spread too thin" tactic of having the U.S. involved in many "hot spots" in the world at one time. It would be obvious to an enemy that with a universal draft the U.S. would not be spread too thin; the U.S. could handle a multi-front war.

A universal draft would be a deterrent against any country using nuclear weapons, since a belligerent country would know that the U.S. has the military boots on the ground to make any nuclear attack a waste, since the belligerent country could then be occupied with massive troops.

A universal draft before college would allow young people to mature the few years, often needed, to truly value a college education. Some form of the G.I. bill could then help with college tuition, rather than the current paradigm where students often leave college with a massive education load debt.

A universal draft that included women would allow women to have full equality in society, and would make all citizens understand the backwardness of cultures that limit female participation.

A universal draft would allow the U.S. to have its young people in bases, ships all over the globe. This means simply, no surprise attack could ever defeat the U.S. We are not all sitting in one place, so to speak.

A universal draft would hasten the process of America being a melting pot of the entire world. Military personnel have always married spouses from foreign shores. The U.S. will become constitutionally (genetically) stronger, as every dog breeder knows (pedigrees have more inherited diseases).

In today's U.S. society there is a percentage of young people raised without the presence of two parents. A stint in the military, under a universal draft, would assist those that wanted to get the discipline that might have been missing in his/her maturing years with only one parent very busy surviving economically.

A universal draft would help young draftees realize one should be grateful and humble for being a U.S. citizen, after seeing how a portion of the world lives (this being a Christian country, it should promulgate the secular virtues of gratitude and humility).

Somehow, I'm tempted to believe that you've never had the privilege of living outside the United States...

.... nor having served as a conscript.

Yeah. I feel so privileged already.

And thanks to the exchange rate, I'll feel privileged next week, too...

Foofie, that's some funny ****.
I'm glad you took the time to write all that because now I know just how far out there you really are. I thought you were out there before, but now I know precisely what distance you orbit the planet the rest of us live on.

The air is thin out there....I get it...but it all makes sense now.

I'm pretty sure Soros owns Wiki.

He bought it.

Yeah, everyone knows that.

But now he sold it to Dubai.

Sweden will be unhappy.

They've asked the Swiss militia already for help.

Well, I'm sure the UN will ban the Swiss militia before that.

I guess that proves Wiki is an arm of the democratic party since we know Soros owns them too.

And don't forget - Soros owns Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

I'm glad you're taking my thoughts in a jocular manner. I would just advise young people to graduate high school and get good marks; the competition for getting into the Air Force and Navy will likely be greater than one may have expected. These thoughts are just my opinion. Who knows what will come to pass?

I only speak English fluently. That limits my life to the U.S., the UK or the Commonwealth. The UK has its idiosyncracies relating to societal position, and the Commonwealth is, in my opinion, still deferent to Mother England. And they all have their own cultures. All of which makes me not comfortable in these countries.

I would not have anything to do with the continent. I am not comfortable with continental Europeans. To me, many seem like actors in a foreign film; trying to act super cool, or acting Old World pompous. So, I will live my life out in the U.S., vacation in the U.S. (perhaps Canada), and be buried in the U.S. I like the U.S. culture. No apologies. I just like the U.S. culture. Too many historical extremes (only 60 years ago) on the continent. I'm not ready to forget. I wish them the best; I just can't appreciate their supposed positives.

And, as far as the rest of the world - I really have no interest in non-western cultures/religions/societies.

I let others be worldly.

except of course, when picking a target for american weapons and occupation, naturally. who better to play armchair general than someone that doesn't even think the rest of the world is worth mention?

Happy to be and to stay incurious and uneducated. And he'll be finally laid to rest in the bosom of the Glorious Heroic Benevolent Homeland. American...North Korean...he could be happily either.

And there's this lovely bit...
That's gansta rap, of course, and the thriving US pornography industry, and blacks being dragged behind pickup trucks, and the Hell's Angels, and the tobacco industry hiding their own research on health matters related to their profitable products, and gay bath houses, and wife-swapping, and the Catholic Church protecting child molesters, where infant mortality rates are higher than 32 other nations including Cuba, Cypress and Portugal...etc