Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to Maybe both the enlistment AND the voting age should be raised.

re: Maybe both the enlistment AND the voting age should be raised.
SDG — (archived)

Sometimes the military needs its immortal youth. Very few experienced soldiers participated in D-day. This was by Ike's design. Later when the soldiers who survided had learned their lessons of mortality they became much more cautious. Ike didn't believe caution would have gotten us past the beach defenses so using our naievety was to our advantage. Perhaps this situation is less the case in modern times though.

I'm torn by Art's first post in the thread. I would hate for war to go back to WWII standards where such a huge sacrifice was required by nations to dispose of evil empires like Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. In modern times we can get rid of dictators relatively bloodlessly from our side. This is a good thing, but there is another side of the coin. Since war requires less sacrifice, there is less inhibitions to starting one when technology is on our side. Therefore caution and responsibility must be a virtue we seek in our leaders. This is something I'm just coming to terms with, pardon my youth. Now the dillema. I don't believe Bush exercised enough caution and responsibility in engaging us in Iraq. I also don't see Kerry as one who would engage us when necessary. I'm torn between the choice of 2 extremes and want a moderate to vote for. I don't get one, that's my dillema.

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