Why We Don't Need a Military Draft

With long, drawn-out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, regularly scheduled deployments to other areas of the world, and tensions between the U.S. and Iran threatening to ignite another war, our military is spread too thin. For our military to complete its mission of defending our country effectively, it is obvious that more personnel are needed. One way to ensure the military is not under-manned would be to reinstitute the draft. Reinstituting the draft would ensure the military an unlimited supply of new recruits. However, there are other, better, and more cost-effective ways to ensure that our military is properly manned without resorting to a draft. There are plenty of logical, valid arguments to support not reinstituting a military draft. A draft would be a huge waist of tax payers’ money. Just getting draftees to recruiting stations to go through the process of physical and mental examinations is not an inexpensive process. There would also be an issue with draft dodgers, which there would be plenty of in this day and age. The process of finding these people, prosecuting them and eventually incarcerating them would be another unnecessary cost to society. There would also be many people who would claim conscientious objector status. Infield (2005) states that even though the draft has not been reinstituted, pacifist churches are beginning to prepare it’s male members on how to become conscientious objectors, for fear a draft is imminent. And as if there would not be more than enough people trying to get out of military service on their own, authorities at the Selective Service System, of all places, are advising the leaders of these churches how to prepare their member’s on how to successfully apply for conscientious objector status (Peace Churches Plan Alternative to Military Draft). Another argument against the draft is that Americans simply do not want to see the draft’s return. Though it has not always been the case, a majority of Americans

References: Infield, T. (2005, June 19). Peace Churches Plan Alternative to Military Draft. Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 11, 2008 from Gale Power Search, Apollo Library. Fick, N. (2004, July 20). Don’t Dumb Down the Military. The New York Times. Retrieved April 11, 2007 from EBSCOhost, Apollo Library. Gregory, A. (2005, July 11). The Most Important Argument Against the Draft. Retrieved April 11, 2008 from the Future of Freedom Foundation, http://www.fff.org/commentaries. Jones, J. (2007, September 7). Vast Majority of Americans Opposed to Reinstituting Military Draft. Gallup News Service. Retrieved April 11, 2007 from EBSCOhost, Apollo Library. Koch, N. (2004, July 1). Why We Need the Draft Back. Retrieved April 11, 2008 from www.washingtonpost.com.