Reinstating The Draft
I'm no fan of the draft, and would very much dislike its reinstatement, but Oliver's argument against it isn't very convincing.
If the cause is just, if the threat is real then I believe that most Americans would sign up in droves to defend themselves and their loved ones. I've always believed that if you have to draft people into a war, you should take a good look at the war in question and wonder why nobody is going.
That sounds great, but it flies in the face of history. The single greatest threat to the world in the last 100 years was Hitler & Japan in World War II. If ever there was a just cause and a real threat - that was quite obviously it. Yet, Americans didn't sign up for the war in droves - at least not droves large enough to mass the force necessary to win the war. We had to have a draft people to fill out the armed forces - over 11 million people (only 6 million volunteered) .
It'd be nice to think that we could fill an army of the required size based solely on volunteers whenever needed, but it just isn't going to happen. And the fact that it doesn't happen is not necessarily a reflection on the legitimacy of any particular war. People don't sign up for the armed services for a whole host of reasons - not wanting to die (regardless of the cause), religious objections, family or career issues.
If the cause is just, if the threat is real then I believe that most Americans would sign up in droves to defend themselves and their loved ones. I've always believed that if you have to draft people into a war, you should take a good look at the war in question and wonder why nobody is going.
That sounds great, but it flies in the face of history. The single greatest threat to the world in the last 100 years was Hitler & Japan in World War II. If ever there was a just cause and a real threat - that was quite obviously it. Yet, Americans didn't sign up for the war in droves - at least not droves large enough to mass the force necessary to win the war. We had to have a draft people to fill out the armed forces - over 11 million people (only 6 million volunteered) .
It'd be nice to think that we could fill an army of the required size based solely on volunteers whenever needed, but it just isn't going to happen. And the fact that it doesn't happen is not necessarily a reflection on the legitimacy of any particular war. People don't sign up for the armed services for a whole host of reasons - not wanting to die (regardless of the cause), religious objections, family or career issues.
# | November 09, 2003