The Military Draft: An Unwise Solution

The Military Draft: An Unwise Solution

The United States of America's military is currently involved in two major wars with U.S. opposition in Afghanistan and Iraq. All though both of these efforts can be said to be in the clean-up stages, many more soldiers will be needed to stabilize the regions, to provide police work, and to fight the insurgencies that have risen in opposition to the invasion of U.S. troops into foreign lands. The current presidential administration states that to adequately deal with the problems of post-war Iraq and unstable Afghanistan the United States needs to increase the number of active-duty soldiers serving over-seas. Top officials in the administration have said that a reorganization of the military is already in progress, and it will create more combat regiments, but the quoted additional 25,000 new military participants needed per year can hardly be met through these minor reorganizations. In addition, recruiting numbers are at their lowest in over ten years (?All Things Considered?, NPR News Source.) Many feel that the reenactment of the military service draft is inevitable because it is the only way to come up with the astounding number of new troops needed to finish the jobs started in the Middle-East by George W. Bush and his Republican administration. If increasing the size of the military is inevitable, then the draft is the wrong way to go. Aside from the moral objections that many Americans have to a draft, there are major logical fallacies in the reasoning that a draft would benefit the military, America, or its interests abroad; therefore, the draft should not be reenacted to increase the number of the United States? combat troops.

The most obvious problem with a military draft is that it creates soldiers that do not want to go to war. Currently our army is volunteer-only, and no one can be forced to enlist if he or she does not want to. This maintains our army as efficient and dedicated to its goal with its members being committed and personally connected to the well-being of American interests. These voluntary soldiers are the best kind of soldiers because they believe in what they are doing. Generalizing slightly, they are willing to give their lives for this country and the missions that it takes on in the world. If a draft were reenacted, this would not be so. Upon forcing citizens to enlist, ou...

... middle of paper ...

...war in Iraq, if the draft were to be reenacted, the underlying statement by wealthy politicians and businessmen would be that they are willing to sacrifice the lives of the youth at random to maintain their own financial comfort.

The draft is an unwise solution to any military endeavor that cannot find the adequate number of troops to fulfill its mission. If people have to be forced to participate in a war, perhaps it was irresponsible to carry it out in the first place without a plan as to how the entire thing would be carried out with the existing military forces. Needing a draft to aid a military campaign also shows that the citizens do not wholly support the cause, because they are not standing up to fight for it. Forcing these people to fight would be disastrous. At home, riots and protesting would ravage the nation and bring to our domestic life a great deal of turmoil. Abroad, soldier morale and ability would be greatly reduced by forcing people who have never been soldiers, and who never wanted to be soldiers, to be soldiers. The draft is therefore an obsolete mechanism of war, and should never be reenacted for the good of our stability, morale, and military strength.