I understand where your coming from. I would agree with everything you said EXCEPT for making it mandatory. The gov. already contorls too much of our lives I don’t see how it’s good letting them force you into the military right after high school. And if this is brought back how many kids will just go to Canada or Europe? Then the military will be left w/ all the poor and welfare kids who didn’t have the means to get out and they usually have lower intelligence.
I started thinking about this a few months ago when we visited an Air Force base for a couple of days with friends - golf outing. It was so impressive to see all those young people training so diligently. They were all so fit and you could see a purpose in them. I simply thought it would be good if all young people were required to go through a couple of years of a real challenge before setting out in life. I haven't thought through the details necessarily. My main fear is that the DEMS would turn it into a "community service corps" and have punks knocking on doors, acting entitled to come into your house to "check things out".
Right now, kids get out of school and many have no future - they have never had the kind of upbringing that creates self discipline and mature responsibility. They know their future is bleak and give up before they even try.
Maybe we could turn some of them around.