Actually, I had this exact idea a few years ago; I wish I’d written it down. There shouldn’t be a draft; that’s absolutely correct. The only draft that a free society should consider is the one above. That only some, randomly selected, should bear the burdens (or privileges) of citizenship is apalling. To be able to get out of the draft by being rich enough to go to college undermines the society, exacerbates class differences, and saddles universities with a lot of useless kids whose parents happen to be rich (I wonder if that’s what happened to American schools; universities got out of the teaching business and into the protection business).
The concern about denying the combat volunteers non-combat positions to cycle into is a problem. I hadn’t considered that.
This is better than the Heinlein model. It is inevitable that the government or at least bureaucrats would start to take bribes to allow people into the the military and then making sure they were in non-combat positions, or denying admission to minorities, or something. Instead of predicating citizenship on military service, keep the same citizenship laws and require (non-combat) military service.
All of this, of course, is because the draft is appalling, terrible, classist, and racist. That this is the only “good” kind of draft is the point.
