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Conscription Pros And Cons

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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 …show more content…

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. …show more content…

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

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“The active draft ended in 1973 and President Gerald Ford ended registration in 1975.” However, this did not last long because of the Soviet Union’s invasion into Afghanistan. The government protected the government policies by, “accepting of conscription by the courts and the acceptance of conscription among members of both political parties.” Having the government work together to protect the law and go by the Constitution, decreased the chances of passing other inaccurate laws such as the eligibility of men for the military and how men were registered for declared and undeclared war. “The scope of proclamations and executive orders rang based upon the period and in relation to the American public’s attitudes regarding conscription or empathy.”

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In addition to sheer unfairness of the draft there were other problems associated with the system such as the bias that was seen within the local draft boards. During the Vietnam war there were over 4,050 local draft boards that consisted of privileged white men who were responsible for the selection and the deferment process of men who had been called to military service. Members of the boards were appointed by the president and they served a term of five years without being paid. Although the process of selecting men for the draft boards was highly official, when good volunteers were appointed and finished their term they were often persuaded by the Selective Service headquarters to remain on the board. Therefor many men who were on the boards were older and bias.

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994 Words | 4 Pages

It also gave more responsibility to the citizens of the United States. We live in a free country and in turn what are we doing for our people? The military draft was a solution to the growing laziness and unwillingness to help in the United States. Although the draft could be reinstated in a different manner, it would be very beneficial for the United States to reinstate the draft in order to have a plan if anything war related were to come up. Overall, having the draft reinstated would prove a great idea for the United States.

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884 Words | 4 Pages

In 1777- 1778 The Revolutionary War was at it’s peak. George Washington decided to camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania with the British and General Howe near by in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But troubles were yet to come because Winter has just begun. If I were at Valley Forge would I have quit or Re- Enlisted.

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1298 Words | 6 Pages

From the beginning of the United States’ history, conflict has always been prevalent. The need for armed forces continually grows, especially in times of war, as the fight for freedom becomes more challenging. Conscription, better known as the draft, was first introduced during the Civil War as a way to get more individuals involved in the military to fill vacant positions. The practice of the draft was finally discontinued in favor of an all-volunteer military system, when the need for troops was no longer necessary. After almost two decades of being involved overseas, the demand for armed troops is imperative once again.

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

Conscription was first implemented in the United States during the American Civil War in 1863 (“Northern Draft of 1863”). It was common for wealthy men to pay for substitutes to take their place during this time. Support for the new law was very rare in the North during this time, and it created the “Civil War Draft Riots” (Harris, “The New York City Draft Riots of 1863”) . The draft would not return for over half a century. In 1917, the US army had just over 100,000 troops.

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Throughout history, countries are inevitably pulled into conflicts that result in war. These conflicts usually occur because of interests in: economic gain, territorial gain, religion, and nationalism. America, like every country, needs a military to defend itself, especially when tensions arise in other parts of the world and when militia numbers start to decrease. This then allows the government to draft its population to serve in the military. People argue that young men and women’s bright lives are often cut short, and not allowed their Constitutional right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, but there are many benefits for the nation and the individual by serving one’s country.

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“The Draft,” as it is commonly referred to, was enacted in September of 1940. Even though the United States was not yet involved in World War II when the act was passed, President Roosevelt regarded it as a vital method of training American men for military service. By 1940, tensions between the United States and Germany were rising as the Nazis had invaded numerous European countries and the news of concentration camps was spreading. Throughout July of 1940, England was the next country to face Nazi aggression, as they faced attacks from the German airforce and navy. With fears that America would be the next country to face a German invasion, Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, also proclaiming, “America stands

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Technology sometimes has a negative effect on people because some believe that it interferes with school or better yet, reading. Reading is a big characteristic in the world that can bring people together and open the imagination. All schools require students to read and write papers on the books they have read. Will that no longer be a requirement now that technology and websites continues to grow? If novels go away, would the world still be okay?

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In the United States, serving in the military is seen as a model of true patriotism, and rightfully so. Service members train for 10 weeks in their transition from civilian to a soldier. They train to be able to endure all the hardships that may come their way. Service members have to be in the best physical shape to serve and because of all that they do, they are thought of as brave and selfless people. Service members make extreme sacrifices to defend our country and act selflessly by doing so; it is fitting that they are seen as heroes by many Americans.

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In David Barno’s , “A New Moral Compact,” he stresses about our countries current military situation, which is all-volunteer. Barno has also served time in the military himself as a lieutenant general. He claims that the countries current dependence on the all-volunteer military, allows us to rush into war without thinking about the consequences first. Barno proposes the idea, “that every use of military force over 60 days would automatically trigger an annual draft lottery to call up 10,000 men and women” (p.20).This solution is useful but it is not useful enough because it targets sympathy from the people while he needs to target the president because the president can initiate a war without consent of the people or Congress.

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“The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,” is based on the love story of Romeo and Juliet. They end up falling in love but cannot be together because of their families. In the end, they both end up committing suicide because of the miscommunication of Juliet’s death. Along the way, the reader meets two characters named Benvolio and Tybalt- who are a great example of foils in the play. Benvolio and Tybalt are good foils because they are such polar opposites.

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In most cases, people often do better in situations that they want to be in. By demanding men to go to war when they rather be somewhere else, they are not going to do their very best. If you have 60% of men who do not want to be there and only 40% of men who want to be there, your army force will not do as well if you had 100% of men wanting to be there. According to the University of Warwick, they proved that people who are happy work harder than people who are unhappy, in their study they said, “They found happiness made people around 12% more productive, while unhappy workers proved 10% less productive.” This statistic shows that forcing people to enlist will not make their army force better and stronger, in fact it does the exact opposite.

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1998 Words | 8 Pages

With that being said there are always those that are exempt from military service, as well as those who cannot be exempt and will inevitably have their livelihoods changed for the worse. Due to evidence presented in previous conscription efforts, possible economic effects, infringement of civil liberties, and other priorities, a mandatory military conscription should not be a possibility in the United States. There have been many occasions in the past in which a mandatory

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1043 Words | 5 Pages

The United States should call for mandatory military service to ensure the freedom and liberty for the children of tomorrow. A lot of people do not know the United States has called for mandatory military service before, just with a different name, the draft. The draft has been “employed by the federal government of the United States in four conflicts: the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam war. “This makes five different occasions when Americans were drafted for a total of 16.5 million people” ( Random Fact of The Day 1). 16.5 million people were drafted and under 1.25 million died in these wars, which is about a 7.6% death rate.

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