Mandatory Government Service

I think there are some pros and cons to mandatory government service.  To begin with, I think it makes people here more health conscious.  Sure, you see overweight people.  Some of them are even in the army still, but I think that, all in all, the majority of the people are used to some sort of regular exercise and it probably makes for a healthier population.  The other reason that it is nice is because everyone experiences a full time job at least once in their life.  This is one thing that I would like to see in the US.  I don't think that people can contribute meaningfully to society if they just live off of other people their entire lives.  By this I'm thinking trust fund kids and other rich, spoiled people.  

However, there are some downsides that I had never thought of before that I think are certainly true.  First of all, I think it changes the national mentality.  Israelis are very cold and blunt for the most part.  I don't know if it is an aspect of spending three years in the military, but I don't think it helps.  I think it also makes people more independent, which is good, but it also makes it hard to meet people and break the ice.  Secondly, I think it perpetuates a culture of fear.  Developed countries have enough of a problem with the fear concept.  I think it's because there is so much to lose in a developed country, especially in Israel where you can drive for an hour and see a mirror image with people living with nothing.  Having people in the military living daily with the knowledge that they can be called up to war at a phone call and training for that war makes people constantly think of it.  We have cable news and papers in the States, but only a small section of society has experienced the military.  

Something else that bothers me about mandatory service, something that inspired me to write this blog, was seeing a female IDF soldier get on the bus with a stuffed duck hanging from her backpack.  I know it sounds sexist, but I don't think that girls should be forced to be in the military.  I think that there should be a different service that they can enter such as Americorps back home.  For that matter, I don't think that you should force men to serve either.  I think that, as there is a high demand for soldiers here, it would make sense to offer incentives for men and/or women to join to fill the demand.  Military service should be for 2 years, other service should be for 3 and there would be financial or educational incentives to get people to join the military over the civil service.  The duck tells me that she has a desk job, isn't a cold blooded killer, and is probably filling some mundane job that I have a hard time believing is worth the time and money of the state to fill.  It also makes IDF soldiers look weak.  No hard core terrorist who was riding that bus with us is going to think twice before messing with her.  Maybe she doesn't care.  Is there truly a demand for that many people working for the military?  Put them to work planting trees, doing road construction and other civil projects.  They learn a useful skill, work for the state for a few years, the state gets cheap labor, teachers, etc and not everyone has to join.  I think you could still maintain an active reserve by making all the men do boot camp and then move then onto other support type roles and keeping a full contingent of combat troops ready.