Let's start drafting!

i mean, we DO have a surplus of population anyway, right? thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people who are just BEGGING to be drafted.

you wanna cross the border illegally? GREAT!! earn your stay by keeping legal citizens at home. you can take the citizenship test (which i assure you is NOT that difficult if you bother to study for two weeks), or you can show your american patriotism by fighting for home and hearth.

don't like it? then leave.

So, you'd put the security of your country in the hands of people who broke into it?

Its like asking a bankrobber to be the only guard at Fort Knox.

i didn't say put them into the national guard. i meant to send them overseas...we're currently giving our navy troops two weeks of combat training and sending them into the middle east, what's the problem with training illegals to do the same? if they don't do their job, at least they're being a burden on another country and not ours. if they decide that they want to stay in the US, they get to receive a decent paycheck, military benefits, and all the perks of a normal draftee. i don't see how this could be a bad situation.

Didn't the US go to Iraq and Afghanistan and will probably go to Iran because they are a threat to the US?

The military has already enough problems with the ex-convicts, neo-nazi's and other extremists they hired recently because recruitment quota's weren't met.

Originally posted by 25cents
i mean, we DO have a surplus of population anyway, right? thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people who are just BEGGING to be drafted.

you wanna cross the border illegally? GREAT!! earn your stay by keeping legal citizens at home. you can take the citizenship test (which i assure you is NOT that difficult if you bother to study for two weeks), or you can show your american patriotism by fighting for home and hearth.

don't like it? then leave.

I'm curious as to what you'd do if you were drafted yourself?

I'm also curious as to wether you're enrolled in the military in some capacity - and if you arent why not? You seem keen enough to send everyone else off.

1 - if we treat them as any other draftee, they'd be making better money than they would doing unskilled labor or making minimum wage, as many currently do. there would be little reason for them to decline. if they decide not to work, then we simply refuse them citizenship and leave them in the country they are shipped to. if they do anything stupid, court marshall to full effect.

2 - both of my parents were military, and i've been considering it, despite their wishes. it's not a bad job - i'd just like to examine a few other avenues first. anyway, if they're here illegally, then they really have no rights by american law anyway, so they know damn well that by crossing the border what could happen.

and i registered for the draft, so i'm not afraid. i just figure that this is one hell of a way to kill 2 birds with one stone.

Originally posted by 25cents
i mean, we DO have a surplus of population anyway, right? thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people who are just BEGGING to be drafted.

BEGGING to be drafted, eh? Is that so? Then why don't they just go and sign up? And why don't you? And why aren't your parents (who both have military experience, from what you're saying) keen on you doing the same?

It sounds like they know a little more about the reality of it than you.

As for the people who really think that the US went into Afghanistan, Iraq, and will soon go into Iran because these countries posed a threat to the US, I can only express my disagreement and wonder at your paranoia and willingness to be gulled by a mendacious government.

Actually, there ARE illegal aliens in the US military, enlistees whose paperwork is, well, challengeable. Some even paid for the privilege, by buying false documents.

Not even their country, and they join the military. Quite patriotic, I'ld say. Sure beats the citizen who waves a flag but doesn't join the fight.

So what you're aiming for is kinda like how Rome was with their post-Marian army which was Italian soldiers in the standard legions, but the auxiliary troops were made up of foreigners of the distant provinces of Rome whom after 25 years of service gained citizenship???

Originally posted by rich23
BEGGING to be drafted, eh? Is that so? Then why don't they just go and sign up? And why don't you? And why aren't your parents (who both have military experience, from what you're saying) keen on you doing the same?

It sounds like they know a little more about the reality of it than you.

As for the people who really think that the US went into Afghanistan, Iraq, and will soon go into Iran because these countries posed a threat to the US, I can only express my disagreement and wonder at your paranoia and willingness to be gulled by a mendacious government.

i was being facetious - they crossed the border illegally, and in my eyes, that's asking for it.

i'm not jumping in because i'm looking at other career choices. learn to read every post before you reply. they're not keen on it because:

a) i'm their son, and they don't want me in a dangerous situation - no parent wants their child to be in harms way.

b) the beauracracy(sp?) drove my mother to alcoholism, and my father has a pretty short fuse.

and as for the person making the comment about the illegals already in the military, all i have to say is this: good on 'em. let those ones stay without any problems. i support them in full, just like i support every other troop of ours overseas.

It’s a really original idea Lysergic. Basically it would work; if the government is prepared to ask you or I to join the army then why not illegales?
We both face the chance of been killed (so no discrimination there mates).

Personally I don't like the morals behind it, but that's because I'm not happy with how we are behaving as nations in this huge world. But in principle it would work, and I really like the ideas originality.

However you would have to be careful about having too many Iranians in the U.S military. They might be agents, or theoretically even terrorists-tourists?

Because of this we have some seriously funny options before us...
1. Munition Discrimination riots
2. Leading to: The Human Shield Division, and
2. The U.S-Mexico Assault Coarse (is a must).
Hay, and real landmines would provide a bit of experience!!

Of course if no one came you could just give them permission to be a temporary U.S citizen. Therefore we would still have all the cheap labour needed to staff our MacDonald’s, change our hotel beds, and collect the trash.

Basically the idea works. But ethics... Well; it depends on you're point of view.
However I see no reason why just because I'm white the military should only be asking me to the join the army; what's wrong with people from other countries?
The military always needs people and if they are going to expose them to depletive uranium, or even perform human experimentation on them then I'm glad if its someone else I haven't even met, and who can't even speak my language. And of course they should have the same job opportunities as everyone else (owing to certain things considered).

The biggest ethical problem is that these people are coming for a better life (not to have their heads shot of). The argument would go that we have plenty of scrum we can put in their place. I mean we have people in this country (who on the whole) are much, much worse than immigrants.

But frankly I enjoy my civil rights; and if immigrants are willing to lower the threat that our own people might one day have to do national; service then I’m all up for that. After all if they are truly in danger maybe they are safer in the military? its a good compromise given that no western country should ever invite all 6.2 billion of the worlds people in. Think of the pollution

Thumbs up to the idea; I enjoyed thinking about it

seems like you think i was slanting this idea towards other 'races'.

i'm talking about every single individual who knowingly crosses into the US without applying for citizenship.

An interesting article I read a couple of weeks ago:

The president and Congress have been working with the Department of Defense since 2002 to encourage legal immigrants to join the military by promising to speed up the process for citizenship for any member of the service who completes one year of duty. In the four years since the program began, more than 25,000 immigrants in uniform have become American citizens. That's the equivalent of one of the active Army's 10 divisions being manned entirely by immigrants.

SNIP

If the US Army placed one recruiting station in the capital of India, an English-speaking democracy of more than a billion people, we would have available a pool of enlistment-age adults equivalent to the entire population of the United States - more than 300 million men and women. Or, if we don't want to pay for a recruiting station in New Delhi, we could mail recruiting brochures to some of the 1 million foreign students who actually make it to America's colleges and institutes on temporary visas each year. Perhaps they would like to have their school debts paid along with guaranteed work.

Retired Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan is a senior fellow with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He served in Air Defense and Eurasian Foreign Area assignments for over 29 years. His most recent assignment was deputy director for Army Strategy, Plans, and Policy.

Christian Science Monitor

Outsource our military to India!