Keith Devens .com

Comparing compusory national service to the draft is a bit harsh. There's a lot of countries out there that have it and aren't going to war any time soon.

And from the German friends I have, they think it's a good thing, whether they end up in the Army, Navy, Luftwaffe (the officer's club, as it's nicknamed), or just doing community service.

http://www.davidrhenderson.com/articles/0199_thankyou.html

This is an article about the end of the (military) draft, and the last small section is the clincher. Do the results apply to a non-military draft? Quite possibly: there would be a huge time commitment, even if the chance of death wasn't there.

High school students? At least an armed service is going to lay on the discipline. How is a feel-good national service plan going to manage everyone without incurring a HUGE taxpayer cost?

I had some "volunteer" requirements for National Honor Society in high school, and we all got them done, but it wasn't a lot of hours and could be knocked out in a couple of weekends. And we all wanted to do it, more or less.

Here's some of what goes on in Germany: http://info.utas.edu.au/docs/ahugo/NCYS/first/1-Germany.html

Sidenote: just in case anybody misunderstands me, military service is conscription, but you have the option of doing the community work as an alternative if you don't want to be conscripted.

And an article on getting rid of it, to replace the current army with a wholly professional one: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1087140,00.html

Comparing compusory national service to the draft is a bit harsh.

Indeed they're not the same, but the fact remains that despite all that Democrats are doing to scare people with the threat of a draft, Democrats are the only ones who've proposed such a thing. Charlie Rangle, for instance, co-sponsored a bill in the house to bring back the draft, and in one of the most disgusting political displays I can imagine voted against his own bill. Kerry himself has proposed a "national service" of some kind and is now clearly trying to hide it.

I'd like to mention that I'm not even necessarily against compulsory military service or a national service requirement of some kind in principle, though in practice you're much better off with a volunteer force. Cumpulsory service is probably more necessary for smaller countries, such as Israel, for example, which does have mandatory military service.

I'm not going to argue over who did what because that's quite seperate, I was just commenting on the cartoon, which unfairly compares compares compulsory community service with the draft.

I agree, however, with the last paragraph of the comment.