If conscription was universal, and suffrage was only given to those who performed conscripted service satisfactorily, it just might work out. I refer you to "Starship Troopers" by R. A. Heinlein.

Vietnam was a conscript war, but the conscription was by no means universal. It was a war fought by blacks and poor whites for the most part, led by ambitious ROTC graduates who didn't have a clue and even more ambitious ring knockers with only a trace more of a clue.

This was the only successful tactic of that war. Send out a small group of well armed troops with a good radio. Wait until enough people shoot at them. Then call in the arty and bombers and kill the shooters. Repeat until done. Put the arty and the jets where the bad guys have trouble reaching them, mountain tops for the arty and lots of barbed and dogs for the airfields. THere was no successful strategy used in that war. You can't beat an enemy who has a resting/hiding/supply place you can't/won't enter. And you can't trust an ally who spends more time smuggling smack than fighting your common enemy, who may also be his supplier of smack.


"And it's one! two! three!
What are you fighting for?

"Don't ask me, I don't give a damn.
My next stop is Vee Et Nam!

"Well, it's five! six! seven!
Open up the pearly gates,

"Be the first one, on your block,
To have your son come home in a box,"