Should the US Institute a Universal Draft?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/07/03/Why_Change_the_Military

A Panel of military and public policy experts argues against a universal draft to replace the current all-volunteer military. This program was recorded in collaboration with the Aspen Institute's Aspen Ideas Festival 2008.

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Why Change the Military? New Adversaries, New Technologies, and a New Generation of Soldiers

A panel discussion at the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival featuring Admiral Gary Roughead, Jim Steinberg, Robert Kaplan and moderated by Lloyd Howell.

Robert D. Kaplan is a correspondent for The Atlantic, where he has reported for the magazine from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. He also serves as a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. His books include Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground; Imperial Grunts; Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus; The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War; An Empire Wilderness: Travels Into America's Future; The Ends of the Earth; The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite; and Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History, all of which grew out of Atlantic articles. He has been writing as a foreign correspondent for more than twenty years.

Admiral Gary Roughead is the 29th chief of Naval Operations. Previously, he served as commandant for the United States Naval Academy, chief of legislative affairs for the Department of the Navy and deputy commander for the US Pacific Command. He is one of only two officers to have commanded the Fleets in the Pacific and Atlantic, and he was commander of the US Fleet Forces, where he was responsible for ensuring Navy forces were trained, ready, equipped and prepared to operate around the world, where and when needed. He has received numerous awards, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit.

James Steinberg is the dean and J.J. "Jake" Pickle Regents Chair in Public Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he was vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. He served as deputy national security adviser to President Clinton and has also served in the State Department as chief of staff, director of the policy planning staff, and deputy assistant secretary for analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.He is the author of many books and chapters on foreign policy and national security topics, including Protecting the Homeland 2006/2007 and An Ever Closer Union: European Integration and Its Implications for the Future of U.S.-European Relations.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

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• mandatory
• service
• conscription
• standing
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• fora.tv
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[LastTrueLiberal]

If you are between the ages of 18-27, the last speaker has a gun to your head.

[ab1tchslap]

It seems like you would have to be a complete asshole to support the idea of a draft.

[happinesson]

yes we need competent people to protect us, yes, may be we need universal draft..but above all we need peace!let us all be driven for world peace...

[wcsxwcsx]

Why are their chairs so high? It makes them all look ridiculous.

[Alkhemist10]

Fuck the government

[ab1tchslap]

@rockking05

17% does not constitute a majority, but if you think that the 17% who support the draft are assholes, I'm not going to disagree with you.

[rockking05]

@ab1tchslap most American support the draft so most American are assholes like you said.

[centurion180ad]

That idiot on the left is parroting stolen ideas. He has no idea what he is talking about. The monster on the right is an economic bigot, and a chicken hawk. Lets draft HIM, sling his sorry ass into the back of a duce and a half after 3 months of incomplete training, and run him up over a 1 ton set demolition charge in Iraq, so he can be blown into bits just like Casey Sheehan.

The admiral is correct, sad to say.

[siriundreamer]

You have the right to bare arms in the US still so you have the ability to defend your home and/or your country already. There is no need of any draft for any reason, ever. The contrary is an illusion.

[recyclecongress]

@laserpointerskills08 So just because I don't support the idea of a FORCED DRAFT makes me a "lazy hypocrite"? First of all, WOMEN shouldn't be drafted to BEGIN with.... SECOND.... anything that MANDATES that people do things against their will or personal choice is NOT what "freedom" is about. And if a forced draft happens, we may as well all be f#cking COMMIES with no freedom or rights whatsoever. Oh, and 'last' of all... what makes you think our wetback-loving Govt would draft MEXICANS?!

[laserpointerskills08]

@recyclecongress Have you ever thought that a forced draft would help keep these Mexicans that you hate so much out? It would force lazy hypocrites like you to get off their fucking asses and enforce our country's borders!

[laserpointerskills08]

@SqueakyAM I agree with you completely... everyone on here is looking only at the cons, but the pros of self defense and a safer country as a whole greatly outweigh these!