For Thanksgiving some few cook a turkey. Many more dine on bird. But this year Dana Milbank wrote a turkey, Washington Post:
At this time of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for the U.S. military — not just for the usual reason that it protects us from our foes but also because it has the potential to save us from ourselves.
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But one change, over time, could reverse the problems that have built up over the past few decades: We should mandate military service for all Americans, men and women alike, when they turn 18. The idea is radical, unlikely and impractical — but it just might work.
I estimate that some four million Americans turn eighteen each year. Mustering in, processing, training up combat levels and mustering out some four million youths a year, will burn through a massive amount of resources yet produce a military both massive and impotent. The purpose of a military force is to prepare for war and to prevail in war. Milbank’s military could do neither.
