DGS49
Diamond Member
Plan to Fulfill Our Commitment to Military Families | Joe Biden
As parents of a service member who deployed to Iraq, the Bidens know that not just military members sign up to serve our nation, it's their families too.
joebiden.com
President Biden and his charming wife have embarked on a campaign to get American support - personal and taxpayer - for military families that may be struggling in one way or another. Fine.
But the American military is, in a sense, fucked up. The traditional makeup of a "battle ready" military force is led by officers and NCO's - career soldiers - with a large number of people who have crudely been described as "canon fodder." These unfortunates were either draftees or short-term enlistees, and although it sounds callous to say it, were considered sort of expendable in battle. These are the ones who "fought and died" for their country. The officers and NCO's occasionally got killed, but the canon fodder were put out front, in the greatest danger.
But the "all-volunteer" military has destroyed that paradigm. Everyone is presumably a long-term soldier, a long-term "investment," and NO ONE is now deemed expendable. This is why the casualty rates in Iraq and Afghanistan are a small fraction of what they were in Vietnam and other historical wars. NO ONE is expendable.
In order to bring the all-volunteer army to fruition, "we" have had to dramatically increase the compensation of the lowest rungs, enhance the benefits, make it feasible for the lowest rungs to GET MARRIED (which was not economically feasible under the old paradigm - the main income for married couples with a low-level enlisted man during Vietnam was the non-military spouse's income). And even at this much higher level of compensation, many married enlisted people are struggling financially.
But again, this is fucked up. The lowest level soldiers SHOULD BE single men, ages 18-24, who plan to get the hell out of the service in 2, 3, or 4 years. "Short timers," so to speak. And they should constitute a numerical MAJORITY of those in uniform. As a result of our perverse military paradigm today, we have an ungodly expensive military force that we hesitate to put in harm's way, because (a) we have invested a lot in training them, and (b) most of them HAVE FAMILIES! This is nuts! What we need is Canon Fodder.
So I propose a "soft" military draft. The "soft" draft will be implemented as follows:
Every American must register for the Draft at age 18. Every registrant must take a short battery of written tests to assess their intelligence, aptitudes, and suitability for military service. They will be asked if they have any specific plans for the short term future...jobs, college, trade school, etc. They will also be given a physical examination to determine whether they are healthy and could be brought into good physical condition in a reasonable period of time.
THEN, the military services would be given the ability to INVITE candidates who meet their criteria to enlist in their branch of the military service. The candidates will be REQUIRED to respond to the invitation, and an absolute rejection would be an acceptable response. But it would give the military services the opportunity to sell their package, indicate what training would be given, and what an enlistment would entail, including pay, benefits, work assignments, veterans' benefits, and so on. It would be made clear that MARRIAGE and CHILD-BEARING are not compatible with this enlistment, and either one would be grounds for discharge under the new Soft Draft guidelines.
These enlistees would be limited to grade levels E-1 through E4, and a re-up would be required for consideration for higher advancement.
The objective would be to purge married soldiers from the lower enlisted ranks. Those currently in that situation wouldn't be tossed out, but in five years the objective would be to have all single people in the E1-E4 ranks. At the same time, the frivolous objectives of "diversity" and inclusion could be implemented painlessly.
It's a good thing I'm not Emperor. I would do this immediately.