Which flavor of military is it better for a nation to have?

[dead0man]

go

[Scam of God]

None.

Armies and gendarmeries must be paid for.

[Franzl]

Professional

[opebo]

A small professional core is ok, but the military should mostly be made up of a casual volunteer force.  Sort of fun-weekends kind of thing. 

As we all know, the stated purpose of the military is entirely spurious and not related to its real purposes at all.

[Silent Hunter]

Professional

Agree. If you don't want to be there, you're not going to be a brilliant soldier.

[Bono]

Chocolate.


Seriously, though, there should be no standing army, only a militia.

I basically agree with opebo, a small professional core for highly specialized positions is fine, but otherwise having a standing military is too dangerous, as the American experience so aptly demonstrates.

[opebo]

I basically agree with opebo, a small professional core for highly specialized positions is fine, but otherwise having a standing military is too dangerous, as the American experience so aptly demonstrates.

Hmm.. you mean the imperialism?  Or those few occasions when it was used against the subjects?  It seems to me that as far as actually punishing the serfs, the american penal system of control has gotten by with only the threat of the military - the police and so forth seem to be quite sufficient for actual use.  The foreign adventures have profited the upper class mightily of course, and served to help in deluding the lower class, but I don't know that they were strictly necessary for the enslavement of those at home to be accomplished.

I guess I consider the bloated and corrupt military we have to be less a 'danger' than a miserable side effect of our main illness - the capitalist system.

[Bono]

I basically agree with opebo, a small professional core for highly specialized positions is fine, but otherwise having a standing military is too dangerous, as the American experience so aptly demonstrates.

Hmm.. you mean the imperialism?  Or those few occasions when it was used against the subjects?  It seems to me that as far as actually punishing the serfs, the american penal system of control has gotten by with only the threat of the military - the police and so forth seem to be quite sufficient for actual use.  The foreign adventures have profited the upper class mightily of course, and served to help in deluding the lower class, but I don't know that they were strictly necessary for the enslavement of those at home to be accomplished.

I guess I consider the bloated and corrupt military we have to be less a 'danger' than a miserable side effect of our main illness - the capitalist system.

I meant the imperialism and the massive entitlement people in the military eel with regard to their share of the tax loot; any talks of cuts to the DoD and they announce Armageddon.

Not to mention it's in their interest to promote all the wars.

[Psychic Octopus]

I'd like a fighting force made up of volunteer soldiers, I'd only support the draft if WWIII occurs. I am open to creating an American Foriegn Legion of some sort, and granting citizenship to people to immigrants who join.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

A citizens' army prepared to rise up and defend their homeland in times of invasion. That's it.

I voted "None" in the poll.

[Mechaman]

Roid Addled Super Soldiers with Lazer Miniguns with attached Nuclear Missle Launchers.

[Psychic Octopus]

Roid Addled Super Soldiers with Lazer Miniguns with attached Nuclear Missle Launchers.

GI JOE!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I'd like a fighting force made up of volunteer soldiers, I'd only support the draft if WWIII occurs. I am open to creating an American Foriegn Legion of some sort, and granting citizenship to people to immigrants who join.

I agree with this.

[Psychic Octopus]

It disgusts me that Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland still have Conscription in force.

[Person Man]

The military we have today is what we need. I just wish that more progressives would join so that the military doesn't go "A Handmaid's Tale"(when a radicalized reactionary military faked destroyed congress, blamed in on Islamists and took over the United States and made it the Republic of Gilead) on our asses. Then again, there are shimmers of hope in this area.

[Jacobtm]

When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, we weren't conscripting our soldiers. Apparently, Wilson initially believed that volunteers would more than fill the ranks. It didn't happen that way, and 3 months later conscription was initiated.

Hopefully we're passed the point where we'll see great powers fighting extended wars, but who knows.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

A small professional core is ok, but the military should mostly be made up of a casual volunteer force.  Sort of fun-weekends kind of thing. 

As we all know, the stated purpose of the military is entirely spurious and not related to its real purposes at all.

It's purpose is to kill people and destroy things.......so, professional

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Option five.

[opebo]

A small professional core is ok, but the military should mostly be made up of a casual volunteer force.  Sort of fun-weekends kind of thing. 

As we all know, the stated purpose of the military is entirely spurious and not related to its real purposes at all.

It's purpose is to kill people and destroy things.......so, professional

Well, that's its function, but the purpose is supposedly to 'defend the country'.  By killing people and destroying things.  But its real purposes are mostly otherwise.  If it were really for defending the country it could be about 1/10th the size and expense.

[Frodo]

Normally I would say a volunteer professional military, but it would be wise to keep the option of conscription alive just in case we face a foe that is roughly our military equal (like the Soviet Union during the Cold War, or Nazi Germany and militarist Japan in the Second World War) as unlikely as that prospect is at present.  At present, all we need is an expanded professional military (especially the Special Forces) -I don't see what good conscription will do us in counter-insurgency or counter-terrorism. 

[Vepres]

For practical purposes, between two and five, though none would be ideal. Too bad there are violent people in this world.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

I've escaped the conscription because it stopped a few years before I could have been called into this, so I can't personally say whether that's good or bad, I can just say that some who did it that I heard found it good, and some found it bad, maybe in the same proportions. I think that a professional army is the best, but I also think every citizens should be associated to that fundamental realm of a state that is the military, maybe by a conscription, though, in case of war, I think the conscription should be sent in last limit, the professional first. No cannon flesh first.

[JSojourner]

An Army of Nuns.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Professional, but I won't take conscription off the table completely.

[k-onmmunist]

A privatised one.