Now that the Senate has voted to require women to register for Selective Service (“the draft”), I think it's time I weigh in again on why I think we should bring some sort of draft back. But instead of me stumbling to make my point, let me let some experts make the case for me:
therealnews.com/… Lawrence Wilkerson and Dennis Laich (I highly recommend his book on the subject) detail here the problems with the AVF and why conscription can be a better alternative.
”On the other side of that question is what you implied, and that is, does the all-volunteer force contribute more to the predilection of the president to use the military instrument? Absolutely, the answer is yes. During the 46 years of the Cold War, for example, we used the military in some really recognizable way about 12 or 13 times depending on how you count one or two of those operations in conjunction with the CIA. During the 22 years since the end of the Cold War we've used it 13 times in very visible ways, so all you need is that statistic to know that having this unresponsive to the nation force, this professionalized military, allows the president to use military far more frequently than otherwise would be the case. I guarantee the Pentagon knows that. When I was there we actually studied this phenomenon. So yes, your implication that the president is more apt to use the war instrument when he doesn't have 99 percent of the nation heavily invested in it, no skin in the game, so to speak, is a dangerous precedent.
therealnews.com/…
”As we've seen throughout these last 14 years of war, we've had poor people, essentially, less than 1 percent of the nation, bleeding and dying and defending the other 99 percent. This is an ethical and moral position I think that's unsustainable. The fiscal position, though, is such that if you just do a linear progression of the defense budget and the cost of people out to about 2025, 2030, you wind up spending almost the entire Army and Marine Corps budget on people. So it's impossible to sustain this force. Another indicator is how we've gone from 2.7 percent women in the ranks to over 15 percent women in the ranks because we can't find enough men. This is not the way to fill out your military. However equitable and egalitarian you may think it is, it's not the way to fill out your military. And it's not the way to build a military that is sustainable over the next few years.
We've come up with a solution, I think, and the solution's rather unique. It's drafting by lottery into the reserve components. Not into the active components. Therefore I think deflecting some of the political criticism and political opposition we'd get, though we don't hesitate to say this is going to be a difficult task to achieve.
To recruit enough people we're spending billions of dollars every year, in recruitment bonuses and reenlistment bonuses, paying for people to go to college, paying a full ride and so forth as a payback for having been enlisted in the first place, or having reenlisted. This is an extremely expensive proposition to maintain this force, and as I pointed out, we're going more and more to women in the forces not because we want to be egalitarian or recognize women's right to serve, which we of course do. It is because we can't find enough men. The problem is acute and the problem is not going to get better. It's going to get worse.”
www.thomhartmann.com/…
www.military.com/…
To put it simply, some sort of return to the draft has to happen I think to A. control military and personal costs B. to create a more socially just method of allocating military and civil service across society and C to help create a more cohesive society. I think it can easily be reintroduced in a fair manner, with non-military options in times of peace and I think this is a very vital part of any truly progressive platform for America. I want to start a discussion in light of this event though, since people are talking about the draft again, which they should be. As Thom Hartmann said, a draft can actually be a maximization of American freedom. I think this bares out.