Before you get carried away by the “spiritual” benefits of a draft, lets cover the practical aspects, starting with some numbers – US population about 300 Million – annual call-up in your hypothetical, no-exemption draft would be what? 1 million, maybe (are you going to include women in your draft) Last I checked, the total number of uniformed personnel in the DOD is less than 2 million (active). Since the introduction of the all volunteer force the DOD has shut down and sold off a large number of the basic training facilities that were used, and would be needed again to support. Gearing up for a draft would take an enormous effort (and budget. The current DOD can’t handle the number of people your draft would force on them.
-You seem to accept the premise that we need a draft to get the numbers of troops that we need. What’s the basis for this? Through the 1980s we supported an all volunteer force of close to 4 million (about twice what we have now). In the 1990s we were forcing people out to ge to the new authorized end strength. We don’t lack troops because we can’t recruit more – the DOD can only recruit to the end strength limits authorized and funded by Congress – The Army would love another few divisions, but they maintain (correctly, I think)that if the President submits, and the Congress passes the necessary appropriations, that those divisions can be manned by motovated, long term volunteers.
I also fundamentally disagree with your premise that a draft will increase civic virtue – I think the effect will be precisely the opposite.
