Iraq War Draft

Factual Questions
1

I’ve heard a lot of people say that there will not be a military draft for the war with Iraq. My questions are:

  1. Why was there a draft during the Vietnam war?

  2. If this war in Iraq were to somehow drag itself out for 5 years or longer would the U.S. government be forced to call a draft like they did during Vietnam?

  3. If no draft, then why not?

2
  1. There was a war in Vietnam because we needed a lot of perople to fight the war there, WHILE we kept hundreds of thousands of troops in Korea and in Eurpope to fight the Commie Chinnese and Russians. Additionally, in the 1960’s, the way America fought wars was by drafting people.
  2. First there is no way that this war will drag on that long. The recent media coverage to the contrary, the war is going very well. IF the war did take a turn for the worde, my guess is the the Administration would give up trying to "win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi perople and would start a truly agressive war and get the hell out.
  3. The main reason that there is not a draft is that the military doesn’t want one. It hard enough keeping Soilders and Sailors motivated, who are getting paid less that $20,000 a year, who VOLUNTEERED. If every other Soilder is a draftee who doesn’t want to be there and is counting down the days untill he leaves, that the Army would be a mess. Secondly, the country no longer has the mindset that the draft is acceptable. Gone are the days when a man (or woman) knew that his Father, Aunts and Uncles had been drafted and now it’s his turn. The possibi;lity of a draft is there for a life of death situation fo the U.S., nothing else.
3
  1. It wasn’t that there was a draft specifically “during” the Vietnam War, or “for” the Vietnam War–it’s that the draft was a holdover from previous wars in previous decades.

History of Selective Service, 1940-1973.

2 and 3. I can’t imagine American Baby Boomers going for having their sons drafted in order to help depose a Mideast dictator who, after five years of war, still had not been proven to have the WOMD that the Bush administration said he had. However, if it could be proven, after five years of war, that (a) the Iraqis did indeed have ready-to-go WOMD somewhere out in the boonies, and that (b) they were seriously going to shoot them at America, then yes, I could see Americans going for a renewed–but limited–draft.

But I think the days of “all your sons are belong to us” unlimited, unquestioned, open-ended military drafts are over.

4
  1. The US had been drafting a fairly large number of men into the Army since 1950. It was the system in existence, young men who really didn’t want to enter the Army could usually get out of it and until people start shooting at you, the experience wasn’t all that bad. So from about 1955 to 1965, there wasn’t much serious talk about changing things, don’t fix what ain’t broke.

As time passed, more men were drafted, more were fighting and the resentment to the draft eventually led to what we have now.