Do I feel a draft?

By Staff
Craig Ziemba / guest columnist
May 9, 2004
In one of those blue moon occurrences, some social liberals and conservatives have finally agreed on something, albeit for different reasons.
Over the objections of all four branches of the military, several congressmen from both parties have recently advocated bringing back the draft, ostensibly to shore up national defense as we face what well become a lengthy war against fundamentalist terrorism.
In a free society, however, forced conscription should only be used as a last resort when national security can no longer be maintained with an all-volunteer military. We certainly are not to that point now.
Our military is clearly the most dominant force on the planet and faces no challenges to its overwhelming ability to project power anywhere on the globe. Unfortunately, though, worldwide terrorism can't be overcome by simply throwing more troops into the fray.
But the recent arguments I've heard in favor of the draft center not around military effectiveness, but rather a bizarre mix of social and political objectives. On one hand, I frequently hear conservatives remark that we need to bring back the draft because a whole generation of Americans has no respect for authority and no concept of what it means to sacrifice a portion of your life for your country.
Need-based
It may be true that many Generation Xers are self-centered and soft and that joining the military would do them a world of good. But the purpose of the military is to fight and win wars, not to serve as a federally funded reform school for children with permissive parents. Decisions about manning levels and recruitment must be based solely on the needs of the armed services, not the disciplinary requirements of society at large.
Liberals, on the other hand have different motivations for reinstating the draft. Some point out that rural conservatives make up a far greater percentage of the fighting force than they do in the population at large.
Several studies have also noted with alarm that while in the past, the military was largely apolitical, today most junior officers identify themselves as Republicans. "A draft," liberal advocates say, "would ensure that our military would be more representative of our society as a whole."
Having spent my adult life in the military, I can attest to the fact that the vast majority of those serving in uniform are conservatives. But ours is an all-volunteer force, and there is certainly no process whereby recruiters are screening candidates based on their political affiliations. If more conservatives than liberals are willing to serve their country, then I'm not sure that drafting liberals into the service will fix the problem.
Career options
Some liberals also purport that many of our troops joined the military because they had no other career options (translation: they were losers) and needed a steady paycheck. In effect, they say that underachieving children of the poor go to war while those with bright futures go to college. A draft would supposedly bring a higher caliber of soldier to the force.
That line of reasoning is not only elitist and condescending, it's also not true. I've seen mechanics work 16 hours a day for weeks on end on the flight decks of aircraft carriers. They might not wear suits and manage $100 million Wall Street accounts, but they are responsible for getting a $30 million jet off the catapult on a deadline three times a day. I'll gladly trust my life to that 19-year-old volunteer from Opelika, Ala., over a drafted Ivy league graduate.
Furthermore, if we did bring back the draft as a means of social engineering to achieve some subjective notion of fairness, wouldn't we have to draft women as well as men? And while we're using the military as an instrument of societal transformation, should we remove the ban on homosexuals and force them to join the Marines?
Uncle!
Craig Ziemba is a pilot who lives in Meridian. His book, "Boondoggle," is available at Meridian area Bible
Bookstores.