An interesting article about Israel's mandatory army...

[AmyStrange]

published by a local Seattle weekly called "The Stranger". It's a very popular paper out here writen by the gay community. The article is not about gays or biased one way over the other. A informative read and well written I think:

AN ARMY OF ONE AND ALL
by Nancy Updike

FROM: http://www.thestranger.com/2004-10-21/feature.html
Young Americans are worried about the return of the draft. In Israel, compulsory military service has been a fact of life for 50 years.

There are two choices of free sandwiches at Bakum, the central military base near Tel Aviv where all Israeli draftees are processed: toasted bread with cheese or toasted bread with chocolate spread. The sandwiches are supposed to soften what Israelis call "Bakum shock."

"You're taken from school, from your friends, from your family--I'm making it a bit dramatic, but still--it's a whole other system, a whole other way of life," says Lieutenant Omri Ram, who went through the process himself only three years ago, at 18, and is now showing me around Bakum. "You get orders; you need to wear a uniform."

In other words, you've been drafted. You're going to learn how to shoot a gun and throw a grenade, and if you're unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could get killed. President George Bush in the second debate was happy to deny "rumors on the Internets" about a renewed draft, and Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry says he doesn't want a draft either. But who thought, a few years ago, that we would now be in grinding wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, against enemies we can barely find, with new enemy recruits signing up daily? Who can say what will happen with North Korea or Iran, or a nation-less enemy like al Qaeda, in the next few years? "Bring back the draft" is never going to be anyone's campaign slogan, but that doesn't mean it might not become necessary. That's why the Selective Service System, which requires American men between 18 and 25 to register for a potential draft, still exists.

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