I bet you thought you were safe from the Draft

[diverdon]

So did I. It turns out we were wrong.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/0...ng_grayhaired_hackers_during_times_of_crisis/

US mulls drafting gray-haired hackers during times of crisis

Shortage of tech talent has government pondering end to age, gender restrictions

A US government commission has asked the public for its thoughts on possible changes to the military's selective service rules to allow the conscription of technical talent, including those with computer-oriented skills, regardless of sex or age.


The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, in accordance with the Congress in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, has been directed to consider how to encourage more people to participate in military, national and public service, in order to assure national security.


At the behest of Congress, the commission has been directed to solicit public input on possible rule changes. The commission did so in February through a notice published to the Federal Register, the official record of US government actions.


Among the various aspects of the US Selective Service System being re-evaluated is whether it might make sense to change the process to ensure that individuals with technical skills needed for national defense – medical, language, cyber, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills – are to be required to register for a possible draft "without regard to age or sex."


The US Selective Service presently requires men, ages 18 through 25, to register. Bills have been introduced in Congress to require women to register but have not become law.

 

[ArmyJerry]

This is caused by the H1B visa program, not just in the tech fields. We are not forcing our development / training / “education” systems to meet the coming trends in skill sets in our own citizens because we. Import “cheap” temp talent to do the programming, often from enemy countries , who then get to go back and attack the tech infrastructure they jut built for their for the mother country.

 

[diverdon]

As I recall the programing, chemistry, math and physics courses I took were hard work. If a psychology major can make the same money and never get his hands dirty then why wouldn't you choose that. All I see this doing is driving more people out of STEM and into business admin.

Of course I'm sure that one of the objectives of this is to make war too terrible of a thing to consider for many voters thus aiding the transition of leadership to the surrender monkeys.

 

[...]

spent the first few years out of college working for DOD contractors......loved it......the govt needs me again they know where to find me.

 

[Maggot]

As long as they push my wheel chair Ill go where ever they want me.

 

[101stinfantry]

With my mad techie skills, I still feel pretty safe.

 

[TheOE800]

As I recall the programing, chemistry, math and physics courses I took were hard work. If a psychology major can make the same money and never get his hands dirty then why wouldn't you choose that. All I see this doing is driving more people out of STEM and into business admin.

Of course I'm sure that one of the objectives of this is to make war too terrible of a thing to consider for many voters thus aiding the transition of leadership to the surrender monkeys.

Well, not really. Of course some can, but you're still talking about lots of schooling if we're talking about any kind of clinical practice. However, yes I'd say a pysch major with MBA/PMP can make some good money. Not absurd money, but luxury car and nice home money.

 

[madppcs]

I got my degree in Elec/Comp engineering after I got out. I been working as a Senior Electronics Tech for years now. I sometimes entertain the idea of what it would be like going back active duty knowing what I know now. But being drafted is a whole different perspective.

I served cause since I was a kid, I was destined to be in the military. There was nothing that I wanted any more than to be in the military. I didnt even care which branch. So I did and I took everything that came with it. The good and the bad cause I wanted to be there.

But being drafted and forced to abide by the UCMJ, and all other rules, regulations, and other bullshit or face legal action is not service, its slavery.

 

[Redmanss]

Well, if the upcoming generation wasn't so fat, this conversation wouldn't need to be considered in the first place. I'd go back in a heartbeat and could work in that sector easily for them, but they're looking for cheap labor and not an old and grumpy Gunnery Sergeant.

And @diverdon, someone with a psych degree doesn't make anywhere close to someone with a CS or closely related STEM degree until they go full blown Doctor of Psychology and get licensed to practice. Someone with a BA/BS in Psychology, they're making around $15-$20/hr full time employee, and only around $50-$70k with a MA/MS plus license and work history unless in very high cost of living areas. I have close family members in both industries.

 

[W54/XM-388]

This is caused by the H1B visa program, not just in the tech fields. We are not forcing our development / training / “education” systems to meet the coming trends in skill sets in our own citizens because we. Import “cheap” temp talent to do the programming, often from enemy countries , who then get to go back and attack the tech infrastructure they jut built for their for the mother country.

That's only partially the issue, the other part is that when planing your career ahead, if you go into one of those tech fields, you can be sure you will be worked to death, cheated out of as much money as possible, probably replaced with some indians you are forced to train to do your job before you are fired & then if you happen to survive all that, you'll be fired as soon as you get a bit older and could command a good salary & want actual decent working conditions.

But you could get a management or marketing degree and make better money with a lot easier of a workload.

In addition there is a huge push on to consolidate all the major computing resources and skills into just a few big companies & tell people that they don't need to have any of their own equipment or talent... so in the end about 4 big companies have all the computers & employ Indians or whoever is the cheapest to do the work. End result will be the dumbing down of an entire generation.

The draft idea is probably the worst idea ever for this country.
If you need further proof, the only ones right now who actively want a draft are democrats who want it specifically because it will destroy the military & our ability to actually get anything done overseas.
You saw how bad the draft messed up the Vietnam war.... just imagine today you'll probably get your civil war in a hurry if you start up the draft again, not to mention trying to get top notch tech work out of people you are forcing to do it at gunpoint is not usually going to produce good results.

 

[Gunfighter14e2]

You saw how bad the draft messed up the Vietnam war....

Only the average issued draftee. SF was full of US prefixes an most of those had better than average IQ as well as schooling. Never meet a US prefix in SF that was like his counter part in a std line company. In fact many a US was far better at their job than many RA prefixes.

 

[W54/XM-388]

It wasn't that the draftees didn't make decent soldiers, it was how much having people forced at gunpoint to go join the military messed up the political landscape & determined what leaders got voted in because of it, the fall out from that caused problems for decades.

 

[Redmanss]

It wasn't the draft that messed up the military in Vietnam, it was the politicians foolishly entering us into and micromanaging the war against the recommendations of the Generals, and the public backlash that followed. DoD was 25% draftee in VN era versus 66% in WWII, but nobody criticizes the draftees there, so what changed? Different causes and leadership makes all the difference, but there are hundreds of thousands of draftees that served willingly and fought honorably in Southeast Asia, and are proud of that fact despite having gotten their number called versus walking into a recruiting office. http://history-world.org/vietnam_war_statistics.htm

At this point in time, America has moved well beyond conscripted staffing of the military. The only reason it needs to be maintained is similar to why we need to continue to maintain our nuclear arsenal at the level we do - just in case the world really falls to shit. So long as China and Russia keep up their shit, we can't abolish it.