Why We Need The Draft

I blogged about it before. Were we opposed to US involvement in Viet Nam, or were we opposed to the draft?

PEW Research Center findings out today. Our "volunteer" army does NOT think that Iraq and Afghanastan are worth it. A large percentage enlisted due to the economy. Nearly 1/3 report PTSD.

Why a draft would be better:

1. If it were my child, my nephew (or niece, let's abolish sexism in military service) who was facing forced military service, I would be demanding clear objectives, clear goals, clear times to wind down our military adventures.

2. SEXISM When I was transferring colleges, before I received my acceptance from my new shcool, I received mail from various military recruiters. Because my name was relatively gender-neutral, they didn't realize that I was female. Of course, when I showed up at the recruiting station with the invitation to become a fly-boy, the recruiters were immediately scrambling as to why I couldn't. After all, they had said I met the basic qualifications. Of course, in 1973, they didn't state that the most basic qual was that I be male. I have read paragraphs describing the conditins that soldiers on the front lines experience with the plea, "No woman should have to serve under those conditions." Frankly, no HUMAN should have to.

3. When the Senator's son (or daughter) is likely to have to serve, the Senator is going to pay a LOT more attention to what is going on.

And those are essentially the very same reasons that absent a direct, identifiable, foreign attack of war on our country, a draft will not exist. We cheered when it was allowed to die. 40 years later, we ought to realize that we may have made a mistake.