re: #53 engineer cat

i don’t count getting rid of the draft as an unalloyed Good Thing

i was really appalled at how the armed forces were treated like, it seemed to me, a servant class during the iraq and afghanistan wars

i agree with those who proposed that if we had had traditional conscription during that time that there might have been less vainglorious war mongering in congress, since they might have considered the possibility of their children being sent in

it was as if people making the decisions in government and the soldiers belonged to two completely different classes

Not unalloyed, but it allowed for a far more skilled army, which in turn has helped greatly reduce our casualties in war. Compared to conscripts, our current army is far more effective at its main job: Protecting the nation.