Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Returning to the Draft Is a Mistake
Greetings, fellow Ricochetti – I have a letter published in Friday’s Wall Street Journal.
Comments are welcome. If you hit a paywall, let me know. (Shout out to @henryracette for providing the link in clickable form here.)
Tally ho!
Published in General
Good letter: clear, to the point, and sensible. And congratulations for making the national press. ;)
(By the way, your link in clickable form is here.)
Agreed.
As a former draftee, the best argument that I can make for a draft in certain limited circumstances is that the children of those making the decision to participate in or initiate a conflict should be “eligible” to participate in that conflict. It’s not a new argument, and perhaps subject to avoidance, but it still resonates with me.
I agree. As one with a low lottery number back in the day, the draft did not appear to me and still does not appear to be a healthy thing. In a true national emergency, I can see it, but to force men and women into the service of government to carry out a misguided foreign policy is wrong. While the military can do a lot of good for an immature young adult, that is not really its main purpose.
Thank you!
Thank you, very much!
I appreciate your point, and agree. The challenge (which I admit, I don’t yet have a good answer for) is, how to insure the children of the elite are exposed to the same risks resulting from the policies implemented by their parents?
I wonder to what extent this consideration really matters. (And I confess my near total ignorance on the subject.)
First, I wonder what evidence there is that national leaders respond differently when their children face the prospect of a draft, versus when they don’t. It’s obviously hard to compare across years, cultures, and situations, but it wouldn’t surprise me if those at the very top of national politics always assume (probably correctly) that they and their families will be spared the consequences of whatever decisions they make on any topic.
Secondly, I wonder if we would end up in more or fewer conflicts if national leaders did worry about their own children being drafted. Would it encourage a more accommodating attitude, more tolerance of misbehaving foreign actors, more appeasement that eventually led to larger and more serious conflict?
No idea, but my gut suggests to me that this might not be a particularly strong reason for favoring a draft — and there are certainly good reasons to oppose one.
Well done, PH!! It’s nice to see the fine work of our own Ricochetti! Congratulations!
This argument is often made with regard to perceptions of favoritism on behalf of the elite. It has shaped our cultural perceptions of the Vietnam War for decades. (Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” is practically obligatory for every popular representation of that era.)
I do think that expectations of shared risk on the part of the elite was once strong, such as during the Spanish-American War, and during World War II. However, once mandatory service was successfully implemented in the 1950s, the perception that the elite themselves had an obligation to share in such duties faded. The unpopular wars in Asia accelerated this. Perhaps this also goes hand-in-hand with the rising dominance of Progressive technocracy in modern bureaucracies?
Be that as it may, the relatively small number of elites’ children represent such a small demographic slice of the military-service age population that there is no practical strategic advantage to drafting these individuals.
I appreciate that you acknowledging that this is a “gut” call. While either side of this point is likely be viewed as speculative, it still appears to me that, absent a draft, decision-makers–as well as the wealthy– are less likely to have some skin in the game. Even if one can sensibly argue that the children/grandchildren of elites will somehow avoid service, let’s get that on the record. I’m inalterably opposed to the pain of armed conflict, but we should at least promote the appearance of spreading that pain around.
As best I can recall, there were no exemptions from the lottery. If your number came up, you were gone. Of course, that didn’t mean some wouldn’t draw cushy duty (Algore, cough, cough).
I agree 100% that the pain of armed conflict ought to be borne equally between those who lead and those who make up the rank and file.
This is what I refer to regarding a restructured and revitalized Reserve Component (a militia in its truest meaning). Since the 1950s, the current National Guard/Reserve structure exists only as an auxiliary of the Regular Army. Is this really the model most in line with the vision of the Founders, and that which is most consistent with our American character?
I remember it quite well and I still have the draft registration card and my “notice of classification” card showing my classification as 1-A (ready for induction).
The essence of a draft is that it is involuntary. That is, the deal the country offers to its young men not good enough to persuade enough of them to enlist. In an emergency
that is an acceptable necessity. …well, that is still an abuse of the draftees (although perhaps a necessary one.)The solution to getting enough young men into the military is to offer them a better deal. That might be money, though I think that should be the last option. In Heinlein novels and ancient Rome, it was citizenship. only veterans had full the full status of citizen. In most of history, it was spoils. The successful officers returned as knights or nobility. The successful foot soldiers returned with status in a noble household. In the early days of post-feudal society, soldiers possessed status that was less definite, but indisputably real.
In post-Vietnam America, soldiers are moderately paid and elite society works to demean their status. We will need to find some other compensation or we will find that we lack the soldiers we need to maintain our existing society. Then we will revisit the cost of soldiers: one way or other.
After a generation or so of being told that America is responsible for most of the world’s ills, do you think that young men today would choose a military career or even a short term in the military if they have other options? Unless of course, the compensation is sufficient and they choose to be mercenaries?
…or they are idealists who believe in the promise and goodness of America.
…or they come home to nation that approves and supports their efforts.
Great article. You brought up one point I haven’t used in my arguments about the draft, the rejection rate of today’s drug-using, couch potato youth [my words].
People don’t realize how costly each recruit is. For every manpower slot funded, there are other appropriations that must be added: base support and housing, training, moving expenses, subsistence, health care, dependent care and support, medical costs, retiree pension and health care, and VA costs.
There is a cap on the number needed. Every unwilling draftee takes the place of a willing enlistee.
re kids of the “elites,” in my opinion, that just fills the ranks with more John Kerrys.
The fact that John Kerry, among others, is considered a member of the elite proves that America really is a classless society.
Or is it full of classless people?
We are meeting our enlistment targets. So I don’t know what you mean by this.
In fact, the military has been undergoing a revision in the pay and benefits. The retirement system has been revamped and although the DOD claims it results in the same quantity of cash when a retiree reaches the age of 60, careful analysis shows that that statement relies on rosy assumptions and neglects the effects of how the new retirement system is implemented.
Regardless – my belief is that draft boards are a necessary tool, not to implement a draft but to categorize and smooth the accession of volunteers in time conflict.
I am not in favor of the draft at all.
Clueless is more like it.
Maybe — and this is a joke — the idea of reinstituting the draft was to instill a character of service and civic responsibility in the country’s youth. Actually schools were designed to do this, in part. So why can’t we just purpose military service members to teach in our k-12 schools. Replace the AFT and NEA with the UCMJ.
In addition to ROTC, we do, or did, have Troops to Teachers.
Wow. I didn’t know that. Maybe we need them more today than ever.
I still have mine. Haven’t looked at it in a while but it was either 1H or 1D…ready, able and willing but currently enrolled in Military College (North Georgia College, by the way). Several years later I was commissioned as a 2LT in Armor. However, the war in Southeast Asia was but a memory (so was the draft)…the only shooting in earnest I ever saw was in Grenada in 1983…and they weren’t shooting specifically at me, just in my general direction – more or less.
Unwilling soldiers – “meh” but good soldiers (and the US Armed Services have the best in the world!) have a value beyond gold…
My uncle was an Army lifer who told me that if I took the commission he’d kick my a$$ and if he wasn’t up to the job anymore, he’d hire a couple guys to do it for him. I don’t think he was joking. I missed being drafted by about three numbers. An odd quirk of the Senate that summer kept the draft board from reaching the number that would have pulled me into the service.
https://myarmybenefits.us.army.mil/Benefit-Library/Federal-Benefits/Troops-to-Teachers-(TTT)
I’ve told this story before. During the peaceful demonstrations in Albuquerque after the invasion of Afghanistan, a protester came up to me and my partner and asked “What are you going to do when they start drafting cops?” My partner, an Army reservist who later served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, replied “There’s not going to be a draft.” “Oh, how can you be so sure?” “Because the Army won’t let a POS like you serve alongside me.”