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Originally Posted by gfmucci
Reinstituting the draft will engender domestic unrest UNLESS the draft is initiated in response to some clearly cataclysmic event such as that which brought this nation together a la Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, we have become so jaded about bad things happeining to us (9-11 brought us together for a week!) that there will have to be something much more dramatic than either event to get this nation behind a draft. Until that happens, our military capacity and effectiveness in the world will continue to erode.
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I would tend to agree, as the "me first" generation could not be bothered with something as trivial as 'public service" that did not involve exceptional personal gain.
One of the main problems in relying on conscription as a means of fulfilling the military ranks is the pipeline involved. By the time you establish from dead-stop the necessary induction facilities, equip and staff the training sites, train the draftees, and then assign them into a military unit, the timeline can be anywhere from a very optomistic 12-18 months to a more realistic 18-24 months. WWII and Korea demonstrated that.
Draftees by themselves do no keep a military from eroding - they just provide warm bodies in uniform. The volunteer force of today is so much better trained and equipped than the conscription forces of yesteryear, so just adding people (especially those who don't want the job for selfish reasons) won't improve things.