All high school seniors should spend the summer after graduation going through basic training for one of the armed services. This has several advantages.

· If a large scale war, on the level of WWII, ever occurred it would not take as long to have a suitable army in place. Everyone would have already done basic training. You could have a couple weeks of refresher training before going on to more advanced training.

· It would actually give an agressor nation a disincentive to attack the US. I've heard some historians suggest that this was what aided the Swiss in keeping neutral during WWII. In Switzerland all men are members of the militia and are required to keep their gear, with automatic weapons, at home. I know if I were landing on foreign soil, I would be leery knowing an entire nation's population has been through military training.

· We could reduce the size of the standing army knowing an effective fighting force could be raised in short order. A smaller standing army should give future President's a disincentive from using the military for all manner of feel-good operations all around the globe. A President sending the military on international missions and leaving the US unprotected would cause even the most dovish of Congressmen to raise an eyebrow.

While I do not advocate using the military as social workers, this would have some social side-benefits.

· It would straighten out the troubled youth who are frequently skirting the law before they turn into hardened criminals. Some of them who currently feel as if there are no opportunities besides gangs and drugs might decide to join an honorable "gang" and make a career of the military. An even higher percentage would probably stay on in some reservist capacity, thus highlighting the above advantages of such a program.

· It would give graduating seniors a way to make some money before going off to college in the fall.

I have no doubt that any effort to institute such a program would create a huge uproar as any program with mandatory would. This however seem to accomplish the goals of drafting people to active duty, while still being able to be somewhat palpable to those who would resist the reinstatement of the draft.

This would also make any college exemptions, or deferments irrelevant since they would be done with their requirement in time to go to college in the fall. The program would treat everyone truly equally. There would be no outs for the well connected. I would keep entrance standards same. I don't know exactly what they currently are for recruitment, but I would not rule out kids who had minor brushes with the law. Medical standards should be kept constant.