Say Anything Blog

Since there are millions more young men who reach age 18 each year than the military could absorb, the draft would have to be arbitrary, reaching perhaps only one out of every 10 eligible men. You can bet that the first thing that many of those men would do is run to a court and file a civil suit challenging the lawfulness, arbitrariness, and overall Constitutionality of their conscription. Even if the majority of the suits were dismissed, the cost of having to respond to them would be enormous both in terms of money and in terms of the armies of lawyers that the government would have to employ in order to keep ahead of them. There would also be the risk that a suit in a very liberal jurisdiction (think about the 9th Circuit here) could set a precedent by declaring the entire draft unconstitutional, requiring the Supreme Court to get involved. That cost alone would wipe out any cost savings that the draft could possibly bring to the military...

In the opinion of this NCO (and yes, I know I'm talking way above my pay grade), if we simply built the military back up to 75% of where it was during the Cold War, and eliminated our useless and wasteful bases in places where they're no longer needed, we will easily have enough personnel to conduct all of our operations without burning out the troops. The soldiers would have enough time between rotations to maintain their proficiency at places like NTC and JRTC, soldiers would have enough time to attend professional development courses that are essential to promotions, and they'd get plenty of time between rotations to spend with their families. Rotations to'the sandbox' would occur about every 3 years, meaning most soldiers serving a 4 year term would serve one, or at most, two tours, which is feasible.