[IronJack]

I have mixed feelings about this. "Service" at the point of a gun is nothing more than slavery. And it's a good way to weaken morale, inject a lot of talentless bodies into the military, and teach some undesirables a lot about how we wage war.

At the same time, some form of national obligation might be useful. Maybe requiring a certain number of "volunteer" hours every year for a couple of years. Something like the CCC ...

Just keep the malcontents and slackers away from our armed forces.

[Alberta's Child]

The best "national obligation" you can have is gainful employment at a young age.

If you were to line up all the young snowflakes, malcontents and slackers in this country and do a profile of each one, I can almost guarantee you that the most common characteristic they have is that they've never held a job -- even a newspaper delivery route -- in their lives.