My Proposal for Strenghting the Military without a draft

[Thrill]

Instead of sending people who go to Jail for crimes like selling drugs ro jail, why not let their sentence be a mantatory 4y in the military. It will stop the overcrowding of prisons and the military would be very strong in numbers.

[bigtree]

1. No

No one should be forced to kill against their wishes, as that remains a unfortunate burden of service.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Actually that used to be a choice

and it is still a choice for some crimes... just check how many kids
on their first offense you are told... jail or army...

given the military's policy of a drug free environment, that is not
a group they usually take though

[Salviati]

6. Well if they don't want to take drug offenders...

how about white collar criminals...

Wouldn't it be great to hear:

"Drop and give me 20 Private Lay!"

[John Doe Freedom]

3. I don't know which way to lean on this Brent...

You have a good idea, if the people arrested were semiresponsible and could be taught esprit de corps, honor, loyalty and courage. I am affiliated with law enforcement, and have found it difficult to find a true criminal that would not just think of his/her self when placed under the psychological pressure of warfare. People commit crime for many reasons, one of which is that they don't care about right and wrong, or are sociopathic and have a weak conscience or worse, no conscience. I don't want the volunteer man or woman in the vehicle or foxhole to have to trust their life to such a person. There may be a few though that could be trusted. Maybe a psychological review by professionals as to the persons suitability for such a program could be set up?

[brokensymmetry]

4. Would you really want that?

Take a look at the pictures from Iraq and ask yourself - what might happen if we added lots of criminals to the mix...

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Not new

This was real common way back when I was in the Service. Some made good soldiers, a lot didn't.