John Hawkins notes that there is once again talk about the need for resurrecting the military draft in some circles. He notes that this won’t happen simply because it would be incredibly unpopular politically.
Even aside from the politics, the fact of the matter is that a draft is a horribly bad idea. We have an elite, professional military. You can’t sustain one of those with people who don’t want to be there and who will turn around and leave after 18 months, or whatever the commitment is. Indeed, most (all?) of the remaining modern militaries have turned away from conscription over the last couple of decades.
