What Else

A conservative writer is upset that high school and college kids never read the Constitution, can’t name the first president, don’t know what the stripes on the flag mean, don’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance any more, don’t pay attention when the National Anthem is played, and don’t “understand the costs of freedom paid by millions of men and women who served in the military.”

Ah, the military.

The writer is also upset about school truancy, illiteracy, out-of-wedlock births, drug addiction, welfare, the lack of common sense, direction, critical thinking skills, loyalty to the United States, and excessive texting.

But just as disturbing as all of this is the writer’s proposed solution:

In order to give America’s youth a head start on their lives and help them figure out what line of work interests them, we need to incorporate a two-year mandatory service in either the military’s five branches of Marine Corps, Navy, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard, or civilian work in Ameri-Corps. Every red-blooded American at the age of 18 must enlist in the military or civilian work corps. If they opt for college, they must enter the military or civilian work corps immediately after college for two years.

They could fulfill their national commitment in a combat arms if they feel like a warrior. Or, if they lack the tenacity of combat arms, it takes 10 support personnel in supply, food, hospital, mechanics, etc, to facilitate that combat troop, but could still enjoy the discipline of serving in the military.

In the military, they learn job skills, duty, honor, country. They learn to respect our flag and our country. They learn how to conduct themselves in a free country.

If they feel like civilian work, they funnel into Ameri-Corps where they learn valuable trades in order to work in the outside world.

But what else will they learn in the military?

In the military, they will learn a number of valuable skills, far more than they would learn in AmeriCorps. Things like:

• How to make widows and orphans.
• How to recite filthy cadences.
• How to support a network of brothels around the world.
• How to obey orders unconditionally.
• How to die in vain, for a lie, or for a mistake.
• How to be part of the president’s personal attack force.
• How to invade other countries.
• How to occupy other countries.
• How to intervene in other countries.
• How to get free meals at restaurants
• How to view lots of porn and get paid for it.
• How to get a girl pregnant on a navy ship.
• How to fight foreign wars.
• How to kill on command.
• How to learn to convince themselves that they are role model and public servants.
• How to torture people to get them to say what you want them to say.
• How to transport insurgents and detainees to torture-friendly countries.
• How to enforce no-fly zones—in other countries.
• How to carry out an aggressive, reckless, and belligerent U.S. foreign policy.
• How to not have an independent thought.
• How to get people to practically worship the ground you walk on.
• How to fight an unnecessary war.
• How to make everyone think you are a hero.
• How to go where they have no business going.
• How to  kill civilians and dismiss it as collateral damage.
• How to make people thank you for your service.
• How to get discounts at businesses.
• How to destroy foreign industry, culture, and infrastructure.
• How to unleash sectarian violence.
• How to fight wars that have never been constitutionally declared.
• How to take sides in a civil war.
• How to die a senseless death.
• How to create terrorists, insurgents, and enemies of the United States.
• How to get their name on a wall or a memorial.
• How to spread democracy at the point of a gun.
• How to fight an unjust war.
• How to get their limbs or genitals blown off.
• How to carry out drone strikes that miss their targets.
• How to enforce UN resolutions.
• How to be a policeman—of the world.
• How to break things.
• How to blow things up.
• How to kill foreigners.
• How to fight a senseless war.
• How to get PTSD.
• How to die for the military/industrial complex.
• How to get a traumatic brain injury.
• How to neglect their families.
• How to fight an immoral war.
• How to make Americans less safe.
• How to get hooked on pain medication.
• How to rebuild infrastructure in other countries after destroying it.
• How to bomb other countries.
• How to maim and disable foreigners.
• How to get suicidal.
• How to change their gender at taxpayer expense.
• How to really learn to curse like a sailor.
• How to launch a preemptive strike.
• How to be a pawn in the hands of Uncle Sam.
• How to engage in offense and call it defense.
• How to serve the state.
• How to be a global force for evil.

Many of these things are valuable skills that they can use after their military service—if they want to harass and harm Americans while wearing the uniform of a cop, a DEA agent, a TSA agent, or an ICE agent.

Mandatory service and national commitment are simply polite terms for national slavery. I thought conservatives believed in the Constitution? The last time I checked, the Thirteenth Amendment still read: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

I can’t think of a worse decision a young person could make than to join the military.

The post What Else appeared first on LewRockwell.