The United States has an all-voluntary military force, which thus signifies that the draft, which was previously mandated throughout the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and did not end until 1973, meant that those so conscripted were compelled by law to serve in the armed forces for two years, which, when the draft ended, meant it was therefore no longer the law of the land. This signified that since that time, nobody has been conscripted into the armed forces of the United States, and since there is also no mandatory community service required in America, either -- means that a wide swath of Americans have never been mandated to serve their nation in any capacity.
It would seem as President Kennedy once said, “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.,” are words that are ignored by many Americans, though it must be said, there are plenty of people that do volunteer to do community work as well as those that have volunteered to be part of our armed forces, but for a certainty, that amount of citizens isn’t close to all Americans. This thus presses the question as to whether this nation should compel all citizens to serve their country either through the armed forces or through community service, of which, a reasonable amount of time to do such which would not overburden anyone, if it was legislated into law, could be set for just six months, and of which, those six months, would not even have to be done all at once, but could be divided into, for example, three periods of two months, or two periods of three months, with the starting age to begin such service as early as sixteen, and the finishing date to be no later than twenty-nine.
The above seems not only reasonable but would provide the raison d'être of what it means to be American, and thereby that freedom really does cost, for the freedom that so many Americans enjoy, came at a blood cost, and therefore we owe it to those that founded this nation and those that have sustained this nation, to do our fair part to show respect as well as our fidelity to this the land of freedom.
So too, it needs to be understood that whenever a government demands nothing from its citizens, then the buy-in from those same citizens is not going to be at the same level as those who have sacrificed something to that country. In other words, there doesn’t seem to be any point in elementary students saluting the flag through the Pledge of Allegiance to America if being American, just simply means being born within America. Indeed, it ought to be governmental policy that Americans should sacrifice something of value, to demonstrate that they value American ideals and dreams, or else they aren’t true patriots, but rather are resting on the laurels of those that have sacrificed blood, sweat and tears on behalf of all Americans, through their valor and bravery, which are the attributes that we too can demonstrate in our own way through our giving back to our nation, with our valued community service to this nation.