That way we could ensure they would actually be somehow connected to the real world. and see things for what they truly are in war and whatnot. and chances are 99.89% of them would turn out conservative.

amirite?

yeah its not a bad idea. still a lot of those slimy assholes can claim "service". at least it will cut down on a fair number of them though.

It's undemocratic.

Anyway, it's not like people can't choose to vote for someone because of their military service.

Well, at least have it to where if they do go into the service, they have to fulfill their commitment in order to be eligible for public office.

http://www.hereinreality.com/commander.html

military affairs are THE thing that governments are formed for. not socialism, not coddling lazy assholes, but anticipating and defending against potential threats to its populace.

it makes sense that the people running the government should at least have a basic understanding of their primary job, dont you think?

The job of the ruling class is to think\lead.

The job of the peon is to fight.

http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/ideas/img/Hammer_and_sickle_huge.png

*shoots self in face*

I would have to agree with you, but it's still not democratic.

I didn't say however, that democracy is the best form of government or my personal favourite.

Um.. what? Government was created to form a social contract and to protect that. At least that's the case over here in the western world.

And what is a social contract? simply an agreement between the government and society. and if the agreement is to protect society... well you get the point.

From Wikipedia:

"State of nature & social contract

According to Hobbes' and canonical theory, the essence is as follows: Without society, we would live in a state of nature, where we each have unlimited natural freedoms. The downside of this general autonomy is that it includes the "right to all things" and thus the freedom to harm all who threaten one's own self-preservation; there are no positive rights, only laws of nature and an endless "war of all against all" (Bellum omnium contra omnes, Hobbes 1651). In other words, anyone in the state of nature can do anything he likes; but this also means that anyone can do anything he likes to anyone else. To avoid this, we jointly agree to a social contract by which we each gain civil rights in return for subjecting ourselves to civil law or to political authority. In Hobbes' formulation, the sovereign power is not a party of the contract, only the beneficiary of it, and so is not bound by it.

Alternatively, some have argued that we gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so; this alternative formulation of the duty arising from the social contract is often identified with militia, or defense activity."

Its balancing out rights to form a cooperative society that benefits all. Defense is merely one method of protecting it.