Bring Back the Military Draft!
Seriously, it would help prevent wars like this one
We have now embarked on what I am convinced is both the craziest and most immoral war in American history, and that’s saying something. (Bush Minor’s Iraq folly is a possible first runner-up, but not even a close second.)
So you want to know how to stop insanity like this from happening? The answer is very clear: Bring back the military draft! But make it a completely fair draft, so that the son or daughter of Ford Motor Co’s CEO and an out-of-wedlock kid from the east side of Detroit both have an equal chance of having to go, and that will make any president, even a narcissitic moron like Donald Trump, reluctant to pull this shit.
If they did, once the war started dragging on and gas prices and body bags started increasing, they’d either have to end it, or see their careers ended for them.
I was recently rereading a portion of William Manchester’s wonderful book, The Glory and the Dream, which is half a century old, but still essential to understanding how this nation became what it is in the modern era. He notes that in World War II, everyone from every social class went. John F. Kennedy was badly injured and his older brother killed. Every one of FDR’s sons served, and one of Teddy Roosevelt’s died in the military. If that were the case today, and Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates’s kids started dying, the rich and powerful would make sure any ridiculous war ended soon.
But in Vietnam, the well-connected could mostly avoid the draft, which is a big part of why that idiotic and meaningless war dragged on so long. I very nearly was sucked in when they changed to a draft lottery system, and with five numbers left, four of which were an instant ticket to basic training, I got a number that meant I wouldn’t be called until the Viet Cong reached Grand Rapids.
President Richard Nixon then shrewedly switched us to an all-volunteer army, thinking that if people enlisted voluntarily, their relatives couldn’t complain when they were sent to meaningless wars. Soon, we had (and still have) an economic draft: Poor kids, primarily minorities and those who wanted U.S. citizenship, joined.
Nobody called them cannon fodder, but that’s what many of them were.
When I was in my teens and early twenties I thought the draft was the worst thing in the world, precisely because I didn’t want to go.
This was totally selfish, and dead wrong. What we need is safeguards to make sure wars are very hard to start, as hard or harder than they are to stop.
I fear we will soon have a whole lot of coffins providing far greater proof than I ever could of how nauseatingly correct I am.
Milton Friedman was the leading proponent of the elimination of the draft and the institution of an all volunteer military where members were “free to choose” participation. We now have a system where the elites are ‘free to choose” elective wars. Wars that we are not free to end.
Traditional war is rapidly being superceded by missile and drone tech. Not sure I agree an old-fashioned military draft to assure a standing army of boots on the ground is the right solution. What if we expanded the idea into requiring one or two years of national service? This could be fulfilled through joining the military, but also through joining VISTA, or wildfire fighter teams, or poverty outreach for literacy, or traveling health service for rural areas, or FEMA storm damage repair crews, home insulation teams, that sort of thing. This "gap year" for graduating high school seniors could serve many functions: building citizenship through service; bringing young people from different regions, cultures, and economic backgrounds together with those they might never otherwise meet; and allowing those young people a chance to mature more and experience a bit of life before they make solid career choices. However such a concept might be implemented, I agree entirely that participation should be compulsory with no "student deferments", no opportunity for rich daddies to pay doctors to write fake passes for "bone spurs", and should be required to be fulfilled by every young American of any gender. The amazing thing is that with modern tech -- truly everyone could participate at some level. Even those who could never meet military standards could serve in ways suited to their abilities.