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Consider an Old Idea
North Miami Beach, FL February 15, 2001 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then, Opinions pro or con are welcome.
CONSIDER AN OLD IDEA
I have a few major concerns about the care and feeding of the military
establishment in this country. One is that by creating safe little
sanctuaries for specialists in the new technological millennium we are also
creating a force of mercenaries whose loyalty is to the paycheck and secures
positions.
I hate war. This was said not only by me but famously by F. D. Roosevelt.
He was Secretary of the Navy and then Commander in Chief. I was an enlisted
soldier in World War II. We had to deal with the state of the art that was
the state of the art of warfare at that time. War is always a lethal
business. Training for war, however, gets old very quickly. Those of us
who knew the Garand Rifle would not know how to use the electronic gagetry
of the automatic weapons or the push buttons that go with long distance
atomic devices.
So, let us consider an old idea. Why not replace the standing armies,
which cost so much with a national service mechanism? In this way, young
men and women will serve their country in various ways, including the
military branches, and are replaced by younger ones coming up. Their pay
will have to be at a satisfactory rate to be approved by their citizen
parents and the children earn their citizenship by service. Switzerland
which never liked war either has this system also.
Since I hate war I should also hate the military services. I prefer to
think that they are prudent if not necessary. I also happen to believe in
national service meaning that all of us owe our country our support and our
work to make it work. Why shouldn't citizens be expected to make their
civilization work?
If you think about it you must have thoughts on the subject. Why have an
expensive and complicated military response establishment dedicated to keep
itself in power and at a high level of recompense? Teach our youngsters
instead the arts of service to our country and let them be a reservoir of
power in case of need. Anything beyond that is wasteful and a poor
investment in critical and responsible thinking.
Carol's Evaluation: 9.5 out of 10. Carol sez: "Sounds like you favor the
Israeli system."
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