I am personally in favour of the demilitarization of the United States as soon as possible, before it becomes even more like the Roman Empire. Also, the use in the U.S. of the military as a social service as a substitute for real social services in America is very weird. But National Service by all members of the society seems to me overall to be a better notion than a specialized military. One important function that it has served in many places is to get the classes to at least see each other up close. Another is to spread a generalized mild humour about the military -- the refusal to take the military seriously in Britain, for instance, is directly attributable to the experience of a draft army. This is a good thing: laughing at the military is very healthy for a democracy.

Another reason for the draft is that the children of the rich should be shot at so that the country will take the decision to go to war more seriously. I think that if you have to have an army, then it should be a draft army. Of course you can have objectors, or doing national service in other ways (like the Dutch)....

yours, Peter T.