Army cuts force size amid unprecedented battle for recruits | Hacker News Reader

Army cuts force size amid unprecedented battle for recruits

washingtonpost.com

10 pointsmardiyah21 comments

> And, among young people, only about 23% are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver.

Perhaps they could expand training so they could shape more people into their standards.

How about we'll pay for weight loss drugs or your bariatric surgery if you commit to being in the military for x number of years.

I assume obesity makes it much harder to recruit able bodied young men.

Mandatory 2 years (counted as work experience) if you don't go to college/trade school. This will help the young'ins be more fit and capable. Many other successful nations do this. It will especially help people who grow up in single parent homes. Overall, less people will land in jail or become single parents themselves.

Which 'successful countries' do this? I can think of S Korea, but they're in a particular situation with their northern neighbour, and some odd European countries who mainly have it because they failed to get through the legislation to abandon it for idiosyncratic reasons.

> Overall, less people will land in jail

Why not just give prisoners with short sentences a choice between jail and the correctional battalion?

And also add robots to the force to aid servicepeople. The Boston Dynamics dog robot clearly has military applications so why not install a remotely operated gun turret, a targetting computer and a video feed on it?

>The Boston Dynamics dog robot clearly has military applications so why not install a remotely operated gun turret, a targetting computer and a video feed on it?

Apparently research into using BigDog for military purposes was discontinued as it was too noisy (not overly surprising given it was powered by a go-kart engine). The smaller Spot robots only have a carrying capacity of 18kg, and the lightest weight variant of a CROWS weapon station I could see is ~74kg.

It would probably be more practical to mount something on an ATV quadbike platform instead of legs... less capability for rough terrain, but probably a lot more practical and easier on maintenance/logistics if you shared a common platform between manned and unmanned quad-bikes.

Because they're on average dumber, less inhibited, more aggressive, and more have problems following orders than the general population.

Basically the make shitty soldiers.

And drafting random people not incined for service somehow doesn't?

Yes random people are far better than criminals for making up a military.

I don't think there is a single general who would disagree with that.

They’re both bad options to pad the ranks of a military that’s looking more like the late Roman army by the day.

Mandatory service isn't a great idea for the US. People forget but we are still in a multidecade quagmire in the middle east. Really enrollment declining is a good thing, they don't need any more bodies to throw at this waste of life and treasure.

Oldest generations first or the “young’ins” will make the 6-70s look sedate.

The Pentagon does not want a force of this size. A few romantics, usually from the Democratic side of the aisle, now and then suggest universal military service, to no effect.

Should be mandatory for everyone, perhaps especially those going to college.

Yeah my kids don’t owe serving your sensibilities.

Stick to your day job. Human personalities and social networks are not yours to dictate.

They live in a society. It’s not exactly a radical idea several developed countries require it. Somehow Danes and South Koreans manage.

No universal healthcare or education, high infant mortality rates, no subsidies for childcare at scale, no mandated sick or vacation time federally. 12 million children living in poverty. Limited or no options for getting mental health care. “We live in a society” in air quotes. When your country provides so little, it is difficult to establish a debt is owed back to it and society.

And the thought of having my kids join the meat grinder for yet another meaningless war for people who care so little for you a random underfunded non profit will have to fill the gap when they come back permanently broken? And your risks of chronic homelessness and/or suicide skyrocket? Absolutely not. Save your life and fight in you for something that matters.

The AVF functions, in a crude analogy, as a contract force for these wars you're talking about. If everyone - and I mean everyone - had skin in the game the prospect of more of these misadventures starts to diminish. It doesn't go away completely, and certainly the elite could invent ways to get around the service requirements, but it's a start.

We should have most of those things too, except we probably can’t do anything about our infant mortality rate because it’s not a healthcare system problem, and universal college which is worthless and regressive. But definitely 6 months of paid maternity leave, mandatory paid vacation, etc.

I hear there are large, wealthy states controlled by a party that supposedly believes in doing things for workers. How’s that going?

South Korea is in a very peculiar situation, isn't it? IMO it (and Taiwan) can't be used to argue for mandatory service in the US, a country that has no hostile neighbours at it's borders.

But there are other countries like Austria that can be used as an example.

Appeals to the authority of other nation states. Weak.

I don’t mind going there; none of you are important enough that anyone else should be forced into being on guard for you.

Here’s a more interesting idea; what if we intentionally created less need for militarization. I like how instead of targeting capitalism you veer towards militant protectionism; more of the same from well financed property owners. Boring.

Be careful with “we live a society”. Brain dead chants have a way of being used to prop up some atrocious shit. “We live in a society where lynching minorities is acceptable!” is not so long ago.

Why not just bring on the inevitable end of humanity and blow it up. End the dumb charade a bunch of apes are not just fooling themselves.

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