Blog Post #1: Pros and Cons of the Military Draft

Pros and Cons of Having a Military Draft

In reality there are pros and cons to everything. However, I have selected to write about the pros cons of a military draft. The reason why I selected this topic was because recently have done a few assignments based around the Vietnam War. A military draft was forced for the war for many reasons. This act of a draft has been a major controversy since its creation and has pros and cons for either side of the argument.

Pros:

1. Assembly

   The military draft enables, in a time of need, our government the power of recruiting a large mass of people in a short period of time. This also allows the military to train millions of people very rapidly. In 1940, according to www.sss.gov, the Selective Service System was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt and them immediately implemented. Although, in the beginning, the required ages were all men aged 21-30. Presently, the age requirements are the ages 18-25. With this being said, while in a serious time of need, the government has the power to have all signees report to training no matter what the crisis is.

2. Cost

   

   Having a draft would be cheaper than none at all. Why? Because the steady flow of draftees creates a streamline into basic training. Also, a draft would create lower military cost. Yes, the army would have to pay soldiers more money because of the increasing numbers of soldiers, and the food and equipment cost would go up as well. This would nearly annihilate the advertising and recruitment costs. In order to save money, however, only the necessary amount of soldiers should be drafted, therefore saving the money used on recruitment.

3. Size

   The most obvious pro of a draft would be the size of the military force when completed. Our military forces would double and maybe even triple nearly as fast as you could blink. There would be zero shortages of soldiers as well as zero failed recruitment goals. The size of the military would be scarier than it already is.

Cons:

1. Quality

   Since the 70's, the U.S. military has maintained and all volunteer military. In other words, the men and women serving our country actually want to serve, they want to be where they are, doing what they're doing. This means, instead of a short 2-year contract, soldiers are staying in for multiple years at a time making them very skilled and experienced. The U.S. military is, without a doubt massive, but the number of soldiers being trained is much smaller than it would be if there were to be a draft. Military training is a long process, but extremely thorough. With a draft, the training would be a lot quicker, due to the massive amounts of people that would need training. The goal would go from making quality soldiers to teaching men how to aim, shoot, and reload.

2. Casualties

   According to Joshua Goldstein, a professor at the American University, the War on Terror has seen fewer war deaths than any other decade in the past century. I believe that it's because of the training that was received by the soldiers, and the experience of the soldiers. If a draft occurred, the number of lightly trained, inexperienced soldiers would increase, along with the number of casualties. More men, more deaths. Especially if they aren't trained as well as they should be.

3. Violation of Freedom

   

The draft takes away ones free will. It takes away the freedom to choose your own life path. The draft raises many issues among anti-war parities and few religious views. Technically, these parties are more-or-less protected under the 1st Amendment, which simply protects, speech, peaceful protest, and religion. Having a draft would, by law, force them to serve against there will.

These are only a few of the pros and cons, but hopefully they give you a general idea about what some of the arguments are. Personally, I would not like to be drafted, but then again, I believe that a draft truly is needed in certain situations such as World War II. What do you think?