315 million
Required service is an asinine idea in a nation of this size. It is simply not fiscally possible. Further, it is absolutely counter to freedom to require everyone to be a tool of the government. Lastly, I DO NOT want anyone that has not volunteered to serve actually serving. Our military is the fine machine that it is precisely because those serving do so of their own free will without any coercion. The only time that we break out of that reality is when the threat is so substantial and so hard to surmount that we are FORCED to initiate a draft exactly as it should be. Held in reserve until it is absolutely necessary
Yet it is fiscally possible to waste all the money the feds already do? You seem to think I am proposing
arming everyone like they were in the army and holding training sessions where they use ammunition on that expensive equipment. No, most of everything would be drills and the like, with a small portion devoted to actual firing. Teaching someone the basics would suffice for now. Plus, the people are not actually serving. They are not being sent to the Middle East to fight terrorists, this is a purely defensive force, to defend freedom on the home front. There is no danger to spending a couple of hours drilling one Sunday a month, is there?
Yes there is. There really is only 2 different instances that you can go with this either you pay people for the service or you force them to work without pay. I hope that you understand why the second option is simply not acceptable under any circumstance. No one, including the government, has the right to force you to do anything without some sort of compensation.
If you pay them you are looking at a massive expenditure. There are approximately 300 million people in this nation. You are talking about requiring damn near 1/2 of them to drill. That is 150 million making a single weekend cost at least 15 billion dollars or half that for a single day. That is without ANY of the ancillary costs that such an endeavor would entail (such as buildings and resources).
15 billion in one shot
Further, as a member of the armed services, I can tell you that drilling a weekend a month like the reserves do is utterly worthless. The training required to do ANYTHING related to actual homeland defense is going to require MUCH more than simple drilling. This is even more worthless because you are claiming that you do not want to arm them or give them and expensive equipment. What exactly are you thinking that they are going to accomplish then? What is the entire point of this drill other than allowing the government to force them to do something? I dont see a single upside to having a bunch of civilians drill about nothing without any equipment.
Also, the American citizens are already capable of defending from outside invaders at least those that chose to be. You are not going to make more capable people by demanding that they become so. That simply does not work. What does work is allowing those that choose to own and maintain their arms. Allowing those that choose to gather and form independent clubs or militias. Allowing those that choose to perform training and become proficient in weapon use. Americans already do this and you are not going to improve this by demanding that they do drills on the little free time they have with their families.
Lastly, and by FAR the most important, this would be a MASSIVE expansion of governmental power. I do not care if you are talking about state power or federal power. Just because it is the states infringing on your natural rights does not make it correct or good. This nation was founded on rights and freedom and that is utterly counter to the concept that the government can dictate everyone in this nation drill or do anything just because they demand it. You can always CHOOSE to serve the government should not be demanding it unless the circumstances are so dire that there is absolutely no choice.
We are. More prepared than anyone else in the entire world. We have the resource, food and willingness. Drills are not going to improve that situation.
Doesn't Germany have mandatory service for all males in the Army once you turn 18? I thought several other countries in Europe did as well. They are drafted and I do not see their society crumbling to the extent of ours. Maybe we should learn a similar lesson. Hence the mandatory Militia.
No, they dont. I believe that they have some sort of service requirement but the majority do civil service not military. It is also for a total period of 6 months not even close to 27 years. Germany also strictly controls weapons in general. You are essentially barred from having a weapon of any consequence. It can take years to get a hunting rifle in many cases. They are also barred ENTIRELY from participating in any type of militia. This extends so far that paintball is quite a difficult sport to practice because the government sees that as military training and makes it illegal in many circumstances. You actually find a significant amount of German civilians entering American bases because the fields there. Essentially, Germany is an extremely poor example of your model as it bears exactly no resemblance to what you are talking about at all.
Just a side note, forcing obese people to work out and be in the Militia can lower obesity rates, I guess. It also builds a sense of community pride.
Obesity? One day a month? No it does not. It would spur the opposite.
Voluntarily serving does exactly that. I cant remember the last time I felt a sense of pride or community out of a practice that I undertook because I was
FORCED to undertake it. Force is the key here. You are not going to get a whole lot out of a militia that you use force to convene.