Received wisdom today seems to be that a military draft is a bad thing. Rep. Charles Rangel is regularly abused for continuing to propose reinstating it: His point is that a military draft spreads the burden of fighting wars instead of having it fall almost exclusively on those most economically burdened. And, there seems to be near-overwhelming terror among those young enough to be subject to the draft that somehow military service could actually happen to them.
With this as background, it occurs to me there are other benefits to be derived from having a draft in addition to the one presented by Rep. Rangel. Since one rarely hears of them today, it seems a worthwhile exercise to mention a few of them. Here is my list:
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1. A draft tends to limit the freedom of politicians to deploy the military according to motives that may not be in the nation’s best interest.
2. A draft provides a view of how the other half lives for the products of our finer educational institutions and possibly encourages in this group some sympathy for the lives of "ordinary folks" — note that it is the post-draft generation that is now busily finishing the task of eliminating job security for the working classes in America.
3. A draft provides the professional military with some close-up experience with people who are now outside the military-industrial complex. It requires them to learn how non-career military people think, and it generally encourages a more thoughtful attitude among professional soldiers.
4. A draft produces a subsequent electorate that is aware of military life and its effect on the people who live it.
5. A draft imposes practical career education on some who might have evaded it previously (including the writer of this column).
6. A draft produces a national reserve of citizen soldiers who can return to a military role in the event of a national catastrophe — i.e. full-scale war.
7. A draft gets 100 percent of the young people turning 18 (or whatever age it kicks in) physically examined by medical people capable of identifying many problems. This has positive public health ramifications that extend well beyond identifying those who are fit to serve.
8. A draft is a sobering prospect for many young people, encouraging more diligent application to work or study in an effort to avoid serving, or, if called to service, to qualify one for more desirable assignments.
9. A draft makes a military career more acceptable as an alternative to people who would not otherwise elect it — yes, there are people who, once drafted, actually decide that they
like military life. Thereby it makes the career military less homogenous in terms of cultural and class background.
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These are generalizations that have occurred over the years to the writer, based on his own experience of having had a fancy education, having opposed the draft, having been drafted (1964) and served, having received a direct commission while in the Army, and having returned to civilian life (1967) knowing a whole lot more than I could possibly have learned without the military experience.
There are many ways that a military draft might be made more palatable, such as compulsory national service in a non-military capacity. However, I share with Rep. Rangel the notion that the draft could be a net benefit to our nation.
Geoff Brown is retired from Citigroup, and lives in Taconic, where he has a small business publishing history.
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