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Diogo Santos

Ms. Litle

ENG121

27 November 2018

Mandatory Military Service

Wars have been a part of our evolution, since ancient times, and because of that

in the beginning kingdoms and now countries have the need to train their population to

fight for their territory and most important to defend their ideals. Because of that a lot of

people discuss if should exist any mandatory military service, especially now with the

acts of terrorism happening in the world, this type of accident makes people afraid and

sometimes change their point of view if the military service should or not be mandatory.

Another thing that happens is that some countries change their regime and make the

service mandatory to better prepare their people for the worse that can happen.

In the article called . “Sources of Support for Mandatory Military Service in the

Context of the War on Terrorism: Survey Evidence Pre- and Post-September 11,

2001.”[ 368–386] exist the idea of supporting the military service by analyzing data,

but also indicates that the impact of the war against terrorism has produced a decline in

the support of mandatory military service. This study uses data post 9/11.

Firstly, the article refers the time periods were the mandatory military service

happened, “Draft” as it was called happen during the Civil War and in the First world

War and in the Second World War, although the Selective Service System was in use

for decades after the Second World War it was terminated in 1973.After that was used a

more professionalize military service with the all-volunteer force (AVF) policy and is

the same that is used today, and this policy are critics of the mandatory military service,

because thing that in the professionalization of the military service will exist a highly
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trained, and well-motivated military force in the United States. But this doesn’t happen

that way because the military service continues to face the problem of less and less

people go after a military career. And another problem that the military service faces in

this type o regime is the fact is that most of the people that AVF recruits are from low

socioeconomic status that are trying to gaining skills that can be used in civilian

employment.

Most part of this article shows how much the military service is struggling to

find people to come and live this type of life, but most of the article shows a lot of

points against the mandatory military service, and most of them have explicit reasons

for why the mandatory military service brings less good things to the table than the

military service by choice of the people. For example the professionalization of the

military will only bring people that really want to be there and that will make everything

in their possibilities to be the better they can. Another big reason for not having

mandatory military service is the fact that people that supposedly know what they’re

talking about like scholar’s thing that if the country are to use the mandatory military

service this will be a reason to enter in unnecessary armed conflicts.

But exist some reasons that some scholars use against the mandatory military

service and one of them is that a mandatory military service is one of the biggest

reasons to armed conflicts.

First of all, the article “THE Military IN Politics: Political Activity by Service

Members Can Be Risky If It Is Partisan or Divisive.” [48] Shows how military people

have affected the U.S. because since the beginning of the country, most leaders have

been a part of the military, and that means that most politics have been impacted by the

military lifestyle. With this said the military have a lot of influence in this country

politics and in the point of view of someone that believes that the military force is
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something important to all the countries not just for the U.S, I believe that military and

politics must be separated, just because people need their freedom and with the military

force involved with the politic side of things will make a more rigid for the population.

“Does Peacetime Military Service Affect Crime?” [512–540] it talked if

military service helps raising or decreasing criminal activity when there is peace. This

study helps understand if a military reform helps or not the life of post criminals

too.Firstly, the article tries to show that the military life style can give the youth some

tips of how to live in society, they focus how military service teaches about obedience

and discipline, and some of that skills show how a labor market activity is more

attractive than a life in crime. Another thing that is talked about is that A military

lifestyle occupies time, what can help reducing criminal activity. The article shows a

counter idea to the first one, showing that a military can delay an entry in the labor

market making the individual lose opportunities, and worse of all can also increase the

criminal rate because of the training in the use of weapons. But the final result of the

study shows that military service in times of peace helps reduce criminal activity and

helps the youth going out or not entering in a criminal life.

This article shows how much the military service helps the young people

because the way with gives, for example, kids with some criminal path having a good

life despite the wrong choices that they have taken in their life. Another thing is that

takes the young guys and girls of the streets and make them have something to do and

this something that there are doing teaches them about discipline and others things that

can be use in a life in society. I think this is one of the biggest reasons for the use of

mandatory military service because the objective is teaching the youth about

responsibilities and to look and help the people that is besides them, and for most

people the younger people are the future of any nation.

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Mainly the article “Mandatory National Service: Creating Generations Of Civic

Minded Citizens”[ 2597-2625] speaks about efforts to create domestic service without

all the military service. It begins to explain the creation of one of the most known

organizations of the type called PeaceCorp created by President John F. Kennedy and

after that talks about other organizations created with similar goals. This type of

organizations has the objective of attracting qualified young Americans and place them

in areas with a high level of poverty and make them work to help the population.

This is an alternative to mandatory military service because gives a modest living

allowance, health coverage, and educational benefits, this includes loan deferments and

grand money. This really makes it an alternative because makes the people help their

own population and for some people doesn’t break the thirteen Amendment prohibition

of involuntary servitude.

Most people think this is something that would fix most of the problems in the

military and will make more people more capable of defending the U.S but that doesn’t

happen because people do this type of works for the benefits that it grants and this is

fact because the military force continues to have lack of people entering the military

lifestyle.

In the opinion of someone that had been in the military service I think the

mandatory military service is way to help the young part of the population learning

about respect, is a way to learn about responsibility and will make them ready for others

objectives in their life. Of course the military is a hard lifestyle, and not of people will

be able to take this type of physical or phycological beat down, but this is just a

minority of the population of every country and most of the types people wit5h some

type of disadvantage are the ones who put more effort on doing something, what I want

to say with this is that the rest of the population have no excuses for not doing this type
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of service. And the fact of some scholars thinks that mandatory military service is a way

for more armed conflicts with other countries that is doesn’t happen just like, that for

example Sweden is a country with mandatory military service and have one of the best

conditions of living for the population, and most important, Sweden is not in any armed

conflict for more than 200 years. But the country keeps the mandatory military service

because they think that is a way for the country be better protected.
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LOGAN, DAVID C. “THE Military IN Politics: Political Activity by Service Members

Can Be Risky If It Is Partisan or Divisive.” Naval History, vol. 32, no. 2, Apr. 2018, p.

48. EBSCOhost,

libdb.ojc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&A

N=128407318&site=eds-live.

Simon, Christopher A., and Nicholas P. Lovrich. “Sources of Support for Mandatory

Military Service in the Context of the War on Terrorism: Survey Evidence Pre- and

Post-September 11, 2001.” Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), vol. 90, no. 2,

June 2009, pp. 368–386. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00622.x.

Albæk, Karsten, et al. “Does Peacetime Military Service Affect Crime?” Scandinavian

Journal of Economics, vol. 119, no. 3, July 2017, pp. 512–540. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1111/sjoe.12181

M.Pauwels, Andrew, “Mandatory National Service: Creating Generations Of Civic

Minded Citizens”, vol 88:5, 3 July 2013, pp.2597-2625