[Gary Boldwater]

The volunteer force is a great feedback mechanism to overzealous politicians. If active duty and reservist military people have to spend too much time deployed on non military missions they will probably not re enlist and recruiting will become more difficult. The numbers in the military will decrease and therefore less deployments can occur. The only way to break out of this feedback cycle is to start up conscription.
It will be interesting to see if we have conscription re enacted by the end of this decade.

[AlaskaErik]

It will be interesting to see if we have conscription re enacted by the end of this decade.

Conscription is so unpalatable that it will never return unless we are in a deperate fight for our survival. By that, I mean armies are assembling and preparing to invade us. Our war with islam cannot be fought with a large standing army. I see us exploiting technology in the future, not sending in cannon fodder. Conscription is dead.