"Let’s Draft Our Kids"

Thomas Ricks has an idea for re-instituting the draft, with a three-part option:

1. Military - 18 months of military service, basically lower-level scut work (paperwork, painting barracks, mowing lawns, driving generals around), so that the professional soldiers don’t have to. Low pay, education benefits, with the option to move into the professional force and receive weapons training, higher pay and better benefits.

2. Civilian - national service for a slightly longer period and equally low pay — teaching in low-income areas, cleaning parks, rebuilding crumbling infrastructure, or aiding the elderly. After two years, receive similar benefits like tuition aid.

3. Libertarians - object to a draft? Opt out. Those who declined to help Uncle Sam would in return pledge to ask nothing from him — no Medicare, no subsidized college loans and no mortgage guarantees. Those who want minimal government can have it.

Read the article here.