"Today, we have an all-volunteer military in which less than 1 percent of the population serve in the military. GIs have returned to the war zone, some as many as three, four and even five times and this is where I have the problem. I hear people say, "Well, after all, they volunteered!" Just because we have an all-volunteer military, does it mean that they are to be sent back into battle time and time again until they are either maimed or killed? Does it mean we should use our brightest and best as cannon fodder because they "volunteered" to serve their country? US suicide rates among US soldiers are heading for a record high, according to army data. According to other statistics, 120 War Vets commit suicide each week. It is just plain unfair. It should be the willing patriotic duty of every red blooded American to take up arms against an enemy, an enemy far more evil than we faced in World War II."
The commentary received some pretty nasty responses as a resounding "NO!" and even going so far as to call the author a communist.
In view of what just happened, we can add "stress," to the equation as to why there should be a draft- this time, to be applied equally and fairly.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stuart Mill, English economist & philosopher (1806-1873)
I read that the shooting suspect was an electronics technician. Even if this was his third Iraq tour, not sure why this is as a case of combat stress as electronics technicians don’t normally see combat. Of course, maybe he was the guy who went out into the field to fix things and routinely got shot at. I guess we’ll see.