>>>>>>>Conscription of the entire population is more appropriate to North Korea or Cuba...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Or Switzerland, if you're male.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>My recommendation was not mandatory conscription in the military. I recommended any public service (peace corps, local community, schools, hospitals, americorps, military, etc) as a way to earn money for college. I feel that is a fair exchange and does not constitute involuntary servitude.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Now personally, I think everyone should serve whether they use it as a means to attend college or not. I realize that the majority of Americans do not agree with me though. Also, military conscription has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
>>>>>
>>>>>If everyone should serve then why just 2 years, why not 20 or whole life? It is the matter of principle: as soon you cross the line saying that 'everyone should serve' then floodgates got open and only skies are limit for advocates of 'common good'.
>>>>>Military conscription is an exception in times of war trials, and it should be kept this way, i.e. as a necessary evil. There is no reason to expand 'evil' limits, e.g. to civil service.
>>>>
>>>>Israel has mandatory public service, don't they?
>>>
>>>As far as I know they don't. I assume that military conscription can be substituted in Israel in some cases with civil duties. Anyway, using Israel as an example in this topic is extremely careless. I specifically mentioned 'war trials' in my reply to forestall these allusions.
>>
>>I was not casting any aspersions on Israel. It was just my understanding that public service is required of the young.
>
>It was not about aspersions. It was about reasonable examples about mandatory public service. Needless to say that your understanding was wrong.

Oh really?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_service#Israel