A universal military draft won't work - there are simply too many 18-year-olds to absorb: 4.4 million this year. The entire active duty military is only 1.4 million. So we pick a subset - Milbank suggests a million. Still too many to absorb in a military that size, because remember, that's a million each year. So they do something else - AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, some other sort of "service" that isn't military. Now all of a sudden we aren't really talking about a draft and we certainly aren't really talking about the military. So what are we talking about?
Government employment for young people. And what exactly is this supposed to teach them? It certainly won't be selfless service to one's country, as a trip to any place of government employment will reveal - DMV, anyone? Post Office? How did the Job Corps do for promoting patriotism?
If we do pursue a military draft it won't be for these specious reasons, it will be because the nation's need exceeds the number of volunteers.
Lately, we have had a generation or two of whiners but the material is still good and we need to reenergize our young men and women into participating in our country's defense and other needs. If we can't handle that many young people, then we need to redevelop that capability. They would get the experience of working outside their neighborhoods, families and their cloistered environment and those who entered the armed forces would learn military skills that could be applied all of their lives when needed. When only a few take part in this nation's armed forces, then whoever's in power can pretty much do what they want. When everyone's involved in our military power, the leadership can't get away with unwanted and unnecessary fights.
The attitude that "other people's children" should volunteer and take all the discomfort and risks for their country came up thanks to the Leftists and cowards during my war, Vietnam. They created the fiction that that part of the world was unimportant and that supporting the enemy was good, healthy fun.
We need to turn ourselves around from the lies of the cowards that ran things back then (and now) and get this country's young people back to involvement with each other and the nation's defense.
Strider - if you couldn't lead today's young people, then you aren't much of a leader, are you? The kids today are just fine, just as good as any generation or better.