Lovely idea, but can you imagine trying to get the 'enthusiastic' ethnics out of their traditional dress? (I'm thinking Jack Straw and his request here).
What would you have them do? Train and then deploy to bolster the main army / RAF / Navy?
In fact what would they do?
Has this country really got the balls to instill disclipline in a bunch of people who don't wanna be there? Let's face it, we struggle to maintain a high level of discipline in our own regualr volunteers!
Would you still conscript those showing academic brilliance, delaying their University studies for a few years so they could learn to be soldiers? Or could we have an IQ cutoff?
Maybe we could start it earlier, whilst people are still at school and run it at weekends for two years. That way we don't delay the clever ones, and nip in the bud all those starting to go bad. You only have to look at 99% of ATC cadets to see how much better behaved and motivated they all are.
Good idea, if only we could make it workable!