Case Against Reinstating the Military Draft - Essay Example

?Case Against Reinstating the Military Draft America is known as the land of the free. A place where nobody is forced to do anything against his freewill. Our young men are allowed to live their teenage lives carefree and safe in the knowledge that forced military service and the atrocities of war is not something that they will ever have to face. It is a scary thought to even consider that the military draft that was imposed on our young men back during World War 2 is once again leering its ugly head. I am of the opinion that the military draft should not be reinstated and I am going to be discussing why I believe that to be so in this essay. However, before I launch into a discussion regarding my personal opinion, I feel that it would be best if I first presented the side of those in support of reinstating the military draft. New York Representative Charles Rangel, who is a Korean war veteran, introduced a bill back in 2003 that would bring the military draft back into the lives of our young male population. (Rangel Introduces Bill to Reinstate Draft, 2003). It is his firm belief that a forced military draft is the only way that the young men of America can prove their allegiance and loyalty to the country that they call home. His bill, which is still pending in congress to this very day would draft young men between the ages of 18-26 into forced military service. With exemptions being granted only to those still in high school so that they can graduate. College age men are expected to enter military service under his proposed bill (Rangel Introduces Bill to Reinstate Draft, 2003). This particular bill is was supported in the senate by South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings. These two men both believe that being drafted into the military would build the character of our young men and democratize what they call the “citizen soldier”. According to Douglas Bandow (Forum: Should the Draft be Reinstated?”, 2003) who was a former special assistant to President Reagan “As a veteran, I strongly believe that fighting for our country must be fairly shared by all racial and economic groups. Nobody wants to go to war, but the burden of service cannot fall only on volunteers who, no matter how patriotic, are attracted to the military for financial reasons. We cannot continue to pretend it is fair that one segment of society makes all the sacrifices.” Records show that most of the members of our Armed Forces are part of the lower income class families who join the service because it is the only job they know that they can have. Rep. Rangel indicated (Rangel Introduces Bill to Reinstate Draft, 2003) that as of 2003 30 percent of the minority population serve in our military services on a voluntary basis. Therefore, there is a discrepancy in the social strata representation in our military and it is Rep. Rangel and Sen. Hollings belief that drafting all available young men would be the best way to get all the social classes represented in the military. I find it amusing that these two highly respected lawmakers would use that kind of requirement in drafting their military draft bill because most of the male high school graduates from low to lowest income families often choose to opt for volunteer military service in order to keep a roof over their head and a regular salary with which to pay their daily expenses. Others who support the draft such as retired general and former commandant of the Army War College and historian Robert Scales Jr do so because they believe that our domestic / homeland security forces lack in numbers when it comes to protecting our own soil. He has claimed that “Even before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, our military was severely overstretched in fulfilling its missions. But more important, we have done nothing serious about homeland defense in the war against terrorism. We need guards for our nuclear power plants, dams and public facilities. We have done little to create the necessary border patrollers, customs agents and cargo-ship inspectors” (Forum: Should the Draft be Reinstated?”, 2003). Although arguments such as the above are true, we do lack domestic military representation since we keep shipping out our troops to fight wars or support military actions overseas, I do not believe that forcing anybody into military service will benefit our nation. It is my belief that a person who is forced into doing something because he under duress will not be able to properly perform any task assigned to him because he is balking at the task on hand deep inside himself. Also supporting the call for a new military drafting law is Sen. Louis Caldera who was the former secretary of the Army from 1998-2001. He claims that being drafted is an excellent way to build character through life experiences for young men. He explains: “I was drafted into the Army in January 1957 and served two years as an enlisted man. I gained a new outlook on life through the rigors of basic training. The military can have a more intense influence on soldiers when they are drafted and have no choice. I developed a sense of patriotism through the experience of serving my country. I'm not on a crusade, but I think today's youth could use more of that type of discipline” (Forum: Should the Draft be Reinstated?”, 2003). The young people of today may not function the same way under a military draft. Our young men and women are not as eager to go to war as our previous generations were. They believe that they have the more effective option of negotiation and amicable settlement building in order to bring peace to a certain region of the world. Is it an idealistic thought and nothing more? Perhaps it is. But our world is fast changing and the use of words is gaining ground as a solution to various discords across the world. The cost of the soldier casualty count in Iraq and Afghanistan have most certainly brought home the true cost of war to most American families as they lose their young men and women to the atrocities of the war front. By the time that Pres. Barack Obama had brought our troops home from Iraq last year, we had already lost thousands of American volunteer soldiers in a war that they fought for not because they believed in its ideals, but because they needed the paycheck for their family instead. The main problem that I see with the proposal to reinstate the military draft is that our country is not currently engaged in a World War type of battle. The freedom of the world is not at stake in the wars that we have fought ever since 9/11. Instead, I see the war that we are engaged in over in the Middle East has everything to do with our country's need for oil and nothing more. We entered into a war in Iraq under false pretenses. It is therefore wrong to force our young men, and (perhaps) women, into serving in the military for a period of time. America seems to have lost its way when it comes to fighting wars. Instead of being the protectors of the weaker nations, a role that we undertook in both World War 1 and 2, we have become conquerors, out for our country's own economic gain in a region of the world that we understand very little about. Add on to the aforementioned reasons the fact that a military draft can actually be considered to be a modern type of slavery. I mean, what else can you call it? The government will actually be forcing the draftees to work for the government even thought they do not have the desire to do so. Any refusal on the part of the draftee will obviously be met with an appropriate punishment, possibly imprisonment. They are literally taken away from their families and forced to place their lives in the hands of people who do not even know them by their last names (Vorpal, 2010). Ask anybody around and they will tell you that these descriptions meet the qualifications for a modern day slave. I strongly oppose the reinstatement of the military draft because it is tantamount to imprisoning a fellow American without a decent chance of getting out of the forced prison alive. As Vorpal (2010) explains: “Conscription is slavery, just a specific kind that oppressive, corrupt governments sometimes condone. “ Vorpal (2010) is correct in assuming that the members of our volunteer / citizen soldier forces can be considered indentured servants who have signed away their lives in exchange for an income. How can a government that truly wants to protect its people from harm force their youth to serve in the military on the premise of “future safety”? The young men and women who got drafted were already safe and secure within the borders of America in the first place. That is what our volunteer armed forces members have already done. They chose to turn themselves into slaves. A drafted soldier on the other hand, has not willingly surrendered any of his liberties. These are forcibly taken away from them without any promise that they will be able to go back home alive and in the same healthy condition that they left their country to fight a war that they did not understand nor did they want to fight. If there is one thing that I know to be true of the American youth, it is that they will never let Uncle Sam down. They do not need to be forced into military service because they will willingly volunteer their services in the protection of the fatherland. This was already proven by the events after the 9/11 bombing that saw American sentiment towards cleaning out those who did harm to our country took precedence over the American youth's need for an easy life. They are responsible and patriotic people. They do not need to be forced to prove their patriotism through a draft. They need not be enslaved in order to fulfill our country's obligation to help other countries fight their own wars either. So I say, no to the reinstatement of the military draft. There must be a better way for our young and able bodied youth to prove their patriotism. There is no need to put them in harms way. There is no need to wipe out our young population in the same way that we lost them during World War 1 and 2. References Anonymous. (2003). Rangel introduces bill to reinstate draft. CNN Politics. Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2003-01-07/politics/rangel.draft_1_military-draft- rangel-poor-fight?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS Anonymous. (2003). Forum: should the draft be reinstated?. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006531-3,00.html Vorpal, K. (2010, December 10). The case for reinstating the military draft in the USA. Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/2030273-conscription-is-slavery Read More