The Draft

Rumors of a draft are a hard thing to kill, but let’s try. America’s transition to an All Volunteer Force (AVF) in 1974 was greeted with glee by those who didn’t want to serve and trepidation by those charged with forming the force to defend America’s interests and allies. Thirty years later, the roles are reversed and it is the military establishment that disdains a draft.

Rumors of a draft are a hard thing to kill, but let’s try. America’s transition to an All Volunteer Force (AVF) in 1974 was greeted with glee by those who didn’t want to serve and trepidation by those charged with forming the force to defend America’s interests and allies. Thirty years later, the roles are reversed and it is the military establishment that disdains a draft.

Having spent decades moving to a smaller, more mobile, technology-driven force requiring longer enlistments of well-motivated, technology-driven people, the military doesn’t want to be saddled with short-term people who don’t want to be there. KP, canteen, laundry service – all things that used to occupy low-tech draftees for the two years the military had them – have been outsourced. “Cannon fodder,” the chief reason armies past needed large numbers of foot-soldiers, has happily become passe for us.

It was hard, but offering the right incentives to the right people has given us probably the finest armed force ever assembled and made the U.S. the single country with worldwide power projection capabilities.

So why discuss a draft? Partly because in fact, there is always a possibility that a contingency will arise that requires enormous people-power (if there is a draft, women will be part of it), and both candidates for the presidency have acknowledged that. But that contingency has nothing to do with our present configuration – we are more likely to strip Germany and S. Korea of willing soldiers before asking for the unwilling.

Too, some people believe every young person should “serve” the country. OK, fine. But why in the military when they don’t want to be there and the military doesn’t want them? There is no comparison to the IDF, which serves multiple functions in Israeli society. And even there, the debate has begun about reconciling the IDF’s high-tech, professional military requirements with the low-tech need to have the military as a societal building block in a country of immigrants with an existential threat.

The real reason, we believe, is that some people think if young people face the draft, they and their parents, will become pacifists and hamstring the government’s ability to project power. It did actually work fairly well during the Vietnam War – on some college campuses, the minute the draft disappeared, so too did student protest.

And that appears to be the reason the urban legend of a “secret plan” to reinstitute the draft is so hard to kill. There are those who oppose America’s presence in Iraq, and hope that by raising the specter of sending everyone’s child off to war, they will force the government to withdraw our troops. Or at least, by raising the specter, they will frighten people into voting for the candidate most likely to withdraw those troops.

It is a cynical creation and exploitation of unfounded fears.