How do you guys feel....

[ENFORCER]

about bringing back the milatary draft??? Thats an issue im concerned about with this coming election. I'll be turning 20 this January..so if there is a draft to happen..Im most likely gone..

[Ballbustah]

I believe it should be an all volunteer military.

Bush has said that he doesn't think it is neccesary... But with the NG stretched out as far as it is that might not hold up.

[bideau]

It's certainly something to think about. So far, both candidates and the current militrtary command are saying they do not want a draft. There are many problems with it. The military will always prefer a volunteer army.

There are problems, though, that will have to be weighed by the next administration. As bustah says, the military is stretched very thin. Enlistments are down for obvious reasons.

In the end, I don't think it'll be brought back mostly because I don't think it would make it through congress.

I'm also concerned since I have a 21 year old son and a 19 year old daughter (most think women would be included in any new system).

[ENFORCER]

Im not trying to come out as a wuss or anything, because I do love this country, and love being an American, but it sickens me that troops are over in iraq dying over a pointless war, just because Bush is to narrow headed to admit to the American people he was wrong.

[Undertaker #59]

Actually, enlistment is fine.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/7470209.htm
Even though support for military involvement in Iraq is waning (the country is now evenly split, according to several polls conducted last month), all branches of the service are meeting their enlistment quotas.

"Things have been going very, very well," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command in Georgia. "We've made our recruiting mission for the year."

Last month, the Army's goal was to recruit 6,400 new enlistees nationwide. It signed up 6,594.

http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/032103/032103a.htm
Judging from the numbers, the sales pitches have been successful. With the exception of a drop in enlistments in 1998-99, all four branches of the armed forces have met or exceeded their recruitment quota since 1980, according to Major Brenda Long, director of Accession Policy.



The only branch that is not meeting quotas is the Guard. And in researching this, I came to discover that the active military is about half the size that it was in 1991. Clinton's cuts of the military were pretty sharp. Rumsfeld has said that he feels the current size is adequate.

I would imagine it would take some time to get levels back up to where they were in 1991, but through programs and incentives it would not be too difficult.

[Flagg the Wanderer]

Don't sweat it. Barring a sustained invasion on American soil, it won't happen.

I'll add that, oddly enough, I think it would be good for the country and its citizens (long term), but bad for the military and its effectiveness if it was reinstated.