Good Reasons to Dodge the Draft
WEST, WOODY
Good Reasons to Dodge the Draft It's not the magic solution to our defense problems. BY WOODY WEST CRANK UP CONSCRIPTION? Of course. On second thought, of course not. As American troops continue...
...Woody West is associate editor of the Washington Times...
...Charles B. Rangel of New York and John Conyers Jr...
...There is also influential advocacy for a national service system in which the military would be one option among many...
...Now, with women making up a sizable portion of the U.S...
...And there would need to be an appellate level for the draftees called who would shout, "Hell no, we won't go...
...Against the traditionalist view, though, is a weightier argument...
...of Michigan...
...military, the pressure to make conscription "inclusive" would be irresistible...
...And, oh yes, how about Army green...
...commitments...
...armed forces in this era (with the phenomenal growth in advanced military technology) may have to increase as the challenges of a new century grow...
...If the international mud gets drastically deeper, however, Americans doubtless will respond with the spirit and tenacity they have shown throughout our his-tory—though that might be a more fractious exercise in a society where deference to institutions is in the basement, or halfway down the stairs...
...That segment of the population is conspicuously absent from the barracks today: There would likely have to be a second lottery by which needed numbers of military draftees were decided upon...
...Right where we are now, evidently and not very impressively...
...The Defense Department speedily released a report showing that "the enlisted force is quite representative of the civilian population...
...Is there much question of where the middle- and upper-middle-class draftees would opt to serve...
...The traditional justification that all those eligible should share the burdens of defense through conscription is not without force...
...As American troops continue in combat in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq is between probable and possible, the draft has been resurrected in debate...
...An organic link that has been ruptured is not easily reestab-lished—and the draft was an organic component of American life from 1940 to 1973...
...In a nation crazed by the politics of feminism and the taxonomy of sex, can anyone conceive that a renewed draft would exclude women...
...Blacks, for instance, who make up 12.7 percent of the U.S...
...Where does that leave us...
...But even that would mean that only a fraction of those registered would ever be called—which even with a lottery could heighten the sense of inequity...
...When President Carter reinstituted registration of U.S...
...There is another deficiency to a new draft, and that is political...
...Their thesis, intended as a partisan shot across President Bush's bow, is that minorities and the less affluent are disproportionately likely to become casualties...
...Any revival of course would have to minimize the inequitable pattern of exemptions that so discredited the draft in Vietnam...
...The lower-end strength of the U.S...
...But that's history...
...Note, too, that the Marine Corps has ordered that most of its troopers due for discharge or retirement must remain on active duty for 12 more months...
...The most recent call to arms came from two black Democrats, Reps...
...Report to the induction center, my lad (and lass), and see what items on the menu attract you—AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, or conscientious objection on religious or philosophical grounds...
...population, comprise 21 percent of total enlisted personnel, but only 15 percent of those serving in the combat arms—infantry, armored, and artillery...
...There is unlikely to be the grace period, so to speak, by which in World War II the nation could get itself together...
...The dilemma of the all-volunteer military is that, good as these soldiers, sailors, and Marines are said to be, there may not be enough of them to tote the bales of a global war against terror and the other challenges of the decades ahead...
...So forget a revived draft unless the world changes beyond the substantial threatening dimensions already evident...
...That could complicate the bureaucratic slicing and dicing immeasurably...
...Enlistments haven't risen geometrically since September 11, and the administration is relying on calling reservists and National Guard troops to meet U.S...
...Think, then, of the Herculean chore of gearing up the Selective Service System with the longer, and possibly perilous, lead time required to transform draftees into soldiers...
...But the debate, such as it is, essentially is demagogic...
...males in 1980 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, there was fuss and foment that females should be included (Congress balked and the Supreme Court upheld the male-only criterion...
...Does that massive and intricate drill suggest the dimensions of the bureaucratic chore...
...For those who say the poor fight better, I say give the rich a chance," emoted Rangel...
...A reasonable argument can be made for reinstituting selective service...
...The cross-pollinization of individuals from different backgrounds can be an agent of civic cohesion...
Vol. 8 • February 2003 • No. 22
