[mercy]

Time to start up the draft. If you support the war against terror you will sooner or later come round to the belief that we must have a draft. The Islamists are making new terrorists much faster than we are killing or locking them up. Then there's Korea and those new found oil reserves in Nigeria we will have to eventually defend. Then there is the mess in S. America. War is our history and our legacy. We've come through fifty years of relative calm but it's over.

[Grut]

Time to start up the draft.

If you think the troops get screwed now, just wait 'til Congress can force people to serve.

[68skylark]

If you support the war against terror you will sooner or later come round to the belief that we must have a draft.

I can't speak for other Freepers, but personally I've got a long way to go before I'm going to "come round" to supporting a draft.

With all due respect it sounds like a terrible idea to me.

[Spruce]

While I agree with your strategic concerns, I do not agree a draft is necessary. I attended, but 2 nights ago, an event sponsored by the Air Force. My daughter made me come with her as she is enlisting. Not only was the turnout way beyond my expectations, the quality of young people volunteering was truly inspiring. I am convinced that a professional, all-volunteer force is the best way.

[briant]

We should never have a draft. If we can't get enough to fight then we loose, and these hippie scum can get a taste of real oppression.

[Tennessee_Bob]

A draft?

Give me a force of volunteers anytime. Volunteers are there because they want to be. Draftees on the other hand - they wouldn't be there unless they had to be. While the draft during WWII may have been a good thing, it was a different society than it is now.

[MainFrame65]

My army service was '62 to '65, deep in the draft years but just ahead of Vietnam. I enlisted just after the Cuban Missile crisis 60-day extension that actually caused a small number of people that enlisted just before me to not complete their service until after I got out.

College students and married men with children were deferred or exempted, so the draftees were mostly not well educated, or college dropouts like me. The draft then was exclusively army, for 2 years, and most draftees went to infantry after 8 weeks basic and 8 weeks advanced infantry training, plus some amount of specialist training if they happened to be chosen for it. That left a time in service of about one to 1 1/2 years for them.

That soldier would not be qualified for the highly technical army of today. Today's serviceman, even the infantry private, is a high school graduate, intelligent, literate, and trained far more extensively (and expensively) than ever before. While he might have joined for the training and benefits as a way to prepare for a civilian job, he serves for at least 3 years, and spends at least twice as much time training as he would have 35 years ago.

The officers are also better now than then. The job is far more technical, and the view, both up and down the chain of command, is much clearer than it used to be. Communication is extensive, and knowledge of the mission and the current situation at all levels is far superior. And if you can't adapt to this environment, you won't be around for long, because there are more than enough volunteers coming along.

We have the finest military that ever existed, and a draft would only lower that quality.