Conscription Pros And Cons

Conscription in America has a long and varied history which can be traced back to the colonial militia. Throughout this history, conscription or more commonly known as “the draft” has been used as a means to fill the ranks of military forces without much consideration for any negative consequences. Despite many of the negative perceptions, I do believe it has served as a useful and effective tool in past conflicts. Having served my entire adult life in an all-volunteer military, I believe this type of military force is better equipped to fight our future wars. With all things considered and the absence of another World War, I believe the practice of conscription will remain solely in our history books. Conscription according to the

Today's military is undeniably better educated and motivated than in the days when much of the enlisted ranks were filled with conscripts on two-year tours. Nearly all of today's enlisted men and women have at least a high school diploma and many are college graduates. Based on my years of service, I would argue that there are fewer discipline problems than during the Vietnam War-era when the draft was often used. The all-volunteer military has consistently demonstrated its ability from Desert Storm to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On another note, an all-volunteer military also means that the burden of defending the nation is carried by a small fraction of the public. This is what is often referred to as the military-civilian divide. Recruitment and retention of service members after the end of conscription is hard to definitively answer. Throughout my time in uniform, I witnessed spikes in recruitment, draw-backs in recruitment and all sorts of efforts to retain and even release members from service. The most telling argument that the all-volunteer force is successful is the fact that we have been in several conflicts as mentioned and we have always been able to maintain an adequate fighting force. I remember very clearly in the early days of Desert Storm all the talk about reinstating the draft which of course never occurred.

Volunteer armies have proven to be the most driven and usually the best prepared. The U.S. has the most elite forces around, in training, spirit, emotion, mentality, and drive. This is because the men and women in the military want to be there. For whatever reason, they made the choice to enlist and fight if needed. For anyone that's seen the movie Pearl Harbor, you might remember toward the end, before the planes left the carrier to bomb Japan, Capt. Doolittle noticed something in the boys fighting and stated something about them. Roughly, he stated that since they were volunteers they had a spirit about them that no one can take away, and that was why we would win the