Mandatory Military Service - Literature review Example

MANDATORY MILITARY SERVICE For the generation that was drafted to fight World War II and whose fathers had been drafted in World War I. To them, it seemed both natural and worthwhile that their sons should also be drafted to defend the country; they believed that young men ought to perform military service for the country and were better off for doing so. Paul Tibbets, who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to bomb Hiroshima, stated a view commonly held by members of his generation when he said, "Every man ought to pay the price to live in this country. And that means helping to defend it." (Daniel Ashkenazy 1994). Nick Tallant, a Second Lieutenant who is currently the Battalion Operations Officer of the 2nd Infantry Division of the US Army strongly believes that mandatory military service be carried out by eighteen year old males (18) and above. In an interview with Officer Tallant said that he joined the military for its intensive training leadership aspect and his desire to serve the country. He further said that he believed in the conflict and that he could do a good job. He also expounded on the importance of the fact that the choice to serve is "free" and this brings out the best men in those who want to serve the country. He explained that military service shows the beauty of democracy. The Military also provides the opportunity to make people feel free and secure; hence, they do not have to worry about people hurting them. Officer Tallant wants to serve in an elite unit. For instance, the Infantry Division to which he is currently assigned has many elite forces in it. He also likes to be deployed in the near future. Officer Tallant identified the positive influences of military service to his professional and personal life as follows: a.) it creates in him a dedication to discipline; b.) it gives him an attitude of service; and c.) it helps him assume a great responsibility. Finally, he points out that his military service shapes his future leadership role in American society by making him to always known for serving. As an officer, the people will have different expectations of him and that his ability to serve will never be questioned. He is also confident that his military experience will ultimately provide him with many opportunities down the road to have a leadership role in the near future. James Burk (2001) tackled the military obligation of citizens since Vietnam. He stated that there were changes in political culture regarding the obligation to perform military service. First, widespread doubt about the legitimacy of the Vietnam. Second, reconfiguring the armed forces in the wake of the Vietnam War to create a "total force" carried on the citizen-soldier tradition. The total force integrated reserve units more closely into the warfighting capacities of the active-duty force and made any deployment as large as Vietnam impossible unless the President took the political risk to call up the reserves. Third, government attempts to define and impose the scope and content of the military obligation of citizens have been sharply contested during the all-volunteer force era, especially when the use of compulsion is involved. Put generally, citizens have played a more active role than previously in determining what the citizens military obligation should be. During the world war era, the legitimacy of the draft was based on a belief, widely accepted, that citizens had an unlimited liability to perform military service when required by the state. Minorities, for instance, long struggled to expand the scope of the military obligation, to end limitations on their military service. Those limitations condemned them to status as second-class citizens. During the all-volunteer force era, their efforts bore fruit. The success of the all-volunteer force depended on the military becoming more accepting and inclusive of the diverse population willing to serve. Minorities pressed their claim for equal citizenship through military service. There is a similar story to tell about gender relations. Since the Vietnam War, barriers to womens service have been steadily torn down. As a result, the number of women serving in the military has risen from less than 2 percent to nearly 15 percent today. The number of military occupations open to women has vastly increased as well. Leaders of the feminist movement worked within the military and through the courts and lobbied Congress to enforce many equal opportunity claims against the military. Their efforts successfully altered life for women in the military. They abolished rules that required women, but not men, to prove spousal dependency to qualify for a family allowance. They eliminated the automatic discharge of women who were pregnant. And they reversed the presumption that only some military jobs were open to women. Samuel P. Huntington (1985) described that the military mind may be approached from three viewpoints: (1) its ability or quality; (2) its attributes or characteristics; and (3) its attitudes or substance. Military and civilian writers generally seem to agree that the military mind is disciplined, rigid, logical, and scientific; it is not flexible, tolerant, intuitive, emotional. The continuous performance of the military function may well give rise to these qualities. Intuitively one feels that these descriptions, also intuitive, come close to the mark. But until more knowledge is accumulated about the personality traits of military men and other politically significant groups and also about the relation between personality, values, and behavior in social situations, this approach will not be very useful in analyzing civil-military relations. A third and more fruitful approach is to analyze the substance of the military mind—the attitudes, values, views of the military man. This has customarily been done through one of two techniques: to define the military mind in terms of content, or to define it in terms of source. The former method describes certain values and attitudes as military in content, and then asserts that these values and attitudes are widely prevalent among military men. Emphasis has generally focused upon two sets of attitudes assumed to be characteristically military: bellicosity and authoritarianism. Elliott Abrams and Andre Bacevich gave two lectures on the theme "Citizens and Soldiers: Citizenship, Culture, and Military Service." The lectures addressed three questions: a.) What is the essence of the American tradition of citizen soldier and how has it changed over time? What has been the value of that tradition? b.)Are members of todays military professionals? Are they citizen-soldiers like the G.I.s who fought the major wars of the last century? A hybrid of both? What are the political and civic implications of "contracting out" national security to a small cadre of long-service volunteers?; and c.) Apart from the greater economic opportunity currently available in civilian life, what other factors may be contributing to the difficulties that the Pentagon faces in recruiting and retention? Two convictions underlie their views. The first is that if American military institutions cannot and should not be isolated from American society. The second conviction is that an era of high-tech warfare has not obviated the need for a traditional combat ethos-the mix of physical and mental toughness, discipline, raw courage, and willingness to sacrifice that was the hallmark of effective militaries in the wars of the 20th century. With that as background, the conference featured three findings. First, the mythic tradition of the citizen-soldier is dead. Given the changing relationship between the individual and the state, spurred particularly by the cultural revolution touched off in the 1960s, the federal government has effectively forfeited its ability to compel citizens to serve in the military. Second, the identity of the "soldier as warrior" has become obsolete. Third, the force needed to perform the functions of a global constabulary ought to be, to the maximum extent possible, unencumbered by personal responsibilities and obligations. Fourth, restore military professionalism. Specifically, the services should open all specialties to women while simultaneously instituting specialty. Fifth, in a society in which male adolescents find it increasingly difficult to discern what it means to be a man or how to become one, military service should be promoted as a rite of passage to manhood. The rigor and purposefulness of military service can offer just the opportunity to do a mans work, something that the Marine Corps has long recognized and effectively exploited increasingly the case. Paul A. Gade, Melvin Kimmel and Hyder Lakhani (1991: 251) in their study highlighted that fact that military service is a good place to begin the transition to adult life. Military service acts as a bridge to adult roles and that minorities, in particular, benefit from military service. A life-course analysis of data from a 1985 survey of 2,566 one-term Army veterans supported this bridging hypothesis with evidence of the subjective impact of military service on women and minorities. Consistent with previous research, results also showed that the timing of military service with respect to age at entry, marital status at entry, and educational level at entry influenced both subjective and objective assessments of the impacts of military service. Type of Army job (combat or noncombat) seemed to have little impact on either subjective or objective outcomes. John Fales in an article on Military Service on February 6, 2006 in the Washington Times asserted that military service can translate to marketable skills. Military members accomplish a great many things while serving our nation. They acquire superb technical training and develop many other important job skills. In addition, they have served as great leaders and managers. Unfortunately, many service members may not realize that they can be awarded college credit as a result of their military training and experience. For service members who have college aspirations, in particular, there are several tools that have been designed to help make the transition easier and more rewarding. There is also branch-specific credentialing available. A valuable tool for all military personnel is the VMET, or Verification of Military Experience and Training. Stephen Goode featured the work of Tom Kilgannon in promoting Military Service in an article on the Insight on the News last April 15, 2003. Goode wrote that Tom Kilgannon organized the Freedom Alliance with Ollie North and US Marine General Edward Bronars to promote the American heritage of freedom. It is an organization that would work in the public-policy area and that would honor the military and encourage military service. It also set up the fund that gives college scholarships to the dependent children of military personnel killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty. They run the Military Leadership Academy. Its a program to interest kids in the armed forces. They bring high-school students on to military bases such as the Quantico Marine Corps base in Virginia, to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, to the Norfolk [Va.] Naval Air Station, Langley Air Force Base and Johnson Air Force Base. Elliot Cohen (2002) examined the profile of the citizen-soldier. The true citizen-soldier is distinguished from his professional or semi-professional counterpart in three ways, all of which suggest that military service follows from true citizenship. The first is his motivation for military service. In the case of the true citizen-soldier, military service is either an obligation imposed by the state or the result of mobilization for some pressing cause. Democratic states generally impose only two kinds of forced labor upon their citizens--jury duty and military service. The former serves the administration of justice; the latter serves the purpose of defense. These two high and essential objects of government ennoble coerced service--and this is the reason why obligatory schemes of nonmilitary service, which have much weaker justification, will find it hard ever to succeed in countries like the United States. Cohen further argued that the true army of citizen-soldiers represents the state. Rich and poor, black and white, Christian and Jew serve alongside one another in similarly Spartan surroundings--at least in theory. The idea of military service as the great leveler is part of its charm in a democratic age, one of whose bedrock principles is surely the formal equality of all citizens. Third, the true citizen-soldiers identity is fundamentally civilian. However much he may yield to the exigencies of military life, however much he may even come to enjoy it and become proficient in military skills, he is always, in the core of his being, a member of civil society. His participation in military life is temporary and provisional. General Colin Powells characterization of the G.I.--the citizen-soldier of World War II--is roughly right. He insists on retaining the appellation "G.I." for young men and women who, however admirable, are fighting no crusades, who have enlisted rather than been drafted, and who are far from being a cross section of American society. Consider, for Time Magazine, Powell was named as the "person of the century" he wrote this essay as follows: As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I referred to the men and women of the armed forces as "G.I.s." It got me in trouble with some of my colleagues at the time.... I persisted in using G.I.s and found I was in good company. Newspapers and television shows used it all the time. The most famous and successful government education program was known as the G.I. Bill, and it still uses that title for a newer generation of veterans. When you added one of the most common boys names to it, you got G.I. Joe, and the name of the most popular boys toy ever, the G.I. Joe action figure. And lets not forget G.I. Jane. G.I. is a World War II term that two generations later continues to conjure up the warmest and proudest memories of a noble war that pitted pure good against pure evil and good triumphed. The victors in that war were the American G.I.s, the Willies and Joes, the farmer from Iowa and the steelworker from Pittsburgh who stepped off a landing craft into the hell of Omaha Beach. They were America. They reflected our diverse origins. They were the embodiment of the American spirit of courage and dedication. They were truly a "peoples army," going forth on a crusade to save democracy and freedom, to defeat tyrants, to save oppressed peoples, and to make their families proud of them. The volunteer G.I.s of today stand watch in Korea, the Persian Gulf, Europe, and the dangerous terrain of the Balkans. We must never see them as mere hirelings, off in a corner of our society. They are our best, and we owe them our full support and our sincerest thanks. Works Cited Books Ashkenazy, Daniel. The Military in the Service of Society and Democracy: The Challenge of the Dual-Role Military. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Huntington, Samuel P. The Soldier and The State. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belnap Press of Harvard University Press, 1957. Journal Articles Burk, James. The Military Obligation of Citizens since Vietnam. Parameters. Volume: 31. Issue: 2. 2001. Cohen, Elliot. Twilight of the Citizen-Soldier. Parameters. Volume 31 Issue 2 2001: 23. Gade, Paul, Melvin Kimmel and Hyder Lakhani. Military Service: a Good Place to Start?. Military Psychology. Volume 3 Issue 4 1991: 251. Lecture Abram, Elliot and Andrew J. Bacevich. A Symposium on Citizenship and Military Service. March 2005. Magazine Goode, Stephen. "Kilgannon Salutes Military Service: Duty, Honor and Patriotism". Insight on the News. Volume 19. Issue 9.April 15, 2003. Newspaper Fales, John. "Military Service Can Translate to Marketable Skills". The Washington Times. February 6, 2006. Interview Tallant, Nick. A Personal Interview. June 9, 2007. Essay General Colin Powell. The GI Soldier. Time Magazine. A Personal Essay. Apr. 12, 2002. Read More