How Would a Military Draft Change American Society in the New Millennium?

Like most baby boomers, I can easily remember the draft. In fact, I would have been drafted the year I turned 19 except that was the year that the draft was discontinued. The draft was discontinued because it was flawed. The United States military did not go to all volunteers because they had so many young people lining up to get into the service.

The all-volunteer military came about because the majority of the draftees came from the lower middle class and down in American society. Those with money and education could find ways to avoid the draft. Korea and Viet Nam demonstrated to every citizen that if you thought the war was wrong and had money, your child would not be drafted. By entering the National Guard or some other type military related service, you were insulated from the draft. If you had a relative with political connections, you would not likely be drafted.

How would it change the population today? After discontinuing the draft, congress got busy and changed how young people would be drafted. By making the Reserves and National Guard the first call ups, these were removed from places to go hide from the draft. A new draft would now be a representative cross-section of our society. This would mean that an unpopular military action would bring immediate responses from those in power.

Today, our wealthy, powerful, and educated tend to avoid volunteering for military service. They also steer clear of those agencies used to supplement the four branches of the military. With a draft, the sons and now also the daughters of those in power would be caught in the net. As soon as these young people began to be lost in campaigns, new laws would hit the books to restrict the use of military force.

The reason that these laws are not being written today is the fact that if the children of those in power are in the military, it is because they have chosen it. When it is forced upon them, the rhetoric will change dramatically. Loopholes will be contrived to allow those who historically have been kept out of the draft during dangerous times to stay out again.