Our country has not drafted anyone to serve in our armed forces since 1973. However, young men ages 18-25, including U.S. citizens living abroad and noncitizens living here, still have to register for possible military service.
Soon, they might not have to remember to do so. The U.S. House of Representatives has added a provision into the next defense funding bill that would make registration for the military draft automatic.
It’s the opposite of what they should do.
We should have learned our lessen in Korea and Vietnam, where most of our fighting forces were conscripted. Our military efforts in those two wars, which cost billions of dollars and more than a quarter-million U.S. military lives, arguably were unsuccessful. We’ll never know how the use of conscripted troops might have affected the outcome of our campaigns there, but we know morale was low. We know that increasing numbers of enlisted people were declaring themselves as conscientious objectors in order to get out of the military or avoid the draft if they hadn’t yet been selected.
Growing protests against the wars in this country, often led by veterans and families of drafted troops, hastened our exit from Vietnam. The anti-war sentiment was so high that in 1973 Congress did away with the military draft altogether.
However, registration was reintroduced in 1980. although no draft lottery has been held since then.
Legal challenges have been made to the draft citing the 13th Amendment’s prohibition of involuntary servitude, but courts have held that it applies only to slavery and not to compulsory military service.
To be sure, our fighting forces have been active during the past 44 years, but a military draft hasn’t been necessary. Extraordinary events, such as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, have drawn plenty of volunteers willing to serve and defend our country and its interests.
That’s the way it should be.
For the past 50 years we have had enough volunteers to serve our military needs, and Rio Grande Valley residents have been among the most loyal Americans willing to serve for just causes.
Our policy makers should take steps to ensure that we always will.
They can begin by stopping recent curtailments to benefits and incentives that attract willing service members, such as healthcare guarantees an educational benefits.
We can also reduce the need for military personnel by rethinking our self-appointed role as the world’s protector. Other countries have inadequately addressed their own defense needs because they are confident that Americans are willing to serve — and perhaps die — in their place, with our taxpayers picking up the tab. Scaling back our global presence could reduce the need for so many troops by reducing the ill will that our presence stirs up in many countries.
Maintaining an all-volunteer military helps ensure that our government pursues policies that the American people support and are willing to defend, and doesn’t have to force people to fight — and die — for causes they oppose.
Instead of making it easier to draft people into the military against their will, we should eliminate selective service registration altogether.
AIM Media Texas
