Dear General McChrystal;
No.
Rather, I offer an alternative. Every qualified male upon accession from high school or its equivalent (Home School, GED etc) is given the option of which branch of service basic recruit, basic combat training, etc they wish to attend. Then upon completion, they attend a high density skill school, abbreviated to not more than 3 weeks to fully integrate them into the USA, USMC, USN & USAF.
Then, they can attend college trade school etc with the ability seek tuition assistance, grants loans etc as they can now. Those who refuse or fail to complete for cause, never qualify for any state or federal benefits. Period. Those who do not qualify for other than medical,(legal, moral, educational ) never get benies. Period.
Females, who wish to seek a spot in the services may do so as above. Those who wish not to serve in arms, can select from one of sevral service oriented alternatives.
What our youth need is a swift kicjk in the selfishness department, some integration ionto a team, that they cannot quit w/o penalty, and a sense of purpose only the military seems to induce into our citizens.
Some tweaking may be inorder, but then again, my summary is a few lines.
Make it hurt to not play, make it a valuable asset to play well.
We may just need a lot of folks that can be spun up and sent downrange quickly one of these days.... 3/4 of a million in uniform who have borne the burden of a decade plus is not a long term solution to national defense assets.
God Bless all of you volunteers.
No. What "our youth" need is a vastly smaller government, on all levels, that demands compulsory service only in the event of a true crisis that threatens the nation. Apart from that, this vastly smaller government should allow "our youth" to succeed or fail based on their own abilities, energy, and ambition, with minimal restraints on their freedom but also with no "social safety net" below them.
The only legitimate way for "our youth," collectively, to be given a kick in their "selfishness" department is to allow them to fall, and fall hard, on account of it.
Anything else is statist bullsh*t.