Date: Thu, 29 Apr 99 10:16:12 EDT
From: "Brian J. Callahan" <Brian=J.=Callahan%MT%DFCI-AT-EYE.DFCI.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: re: The Draft


The wonderful thing about the US is that we're not tied down to the past 
because we just don't remember it:

Steven writes:
>    Unless I miss my guess, the draft in this country (I am from the U$A) is 
>reserved only for when Congress actually declares war On another country, or 
>when the United States is under a military state of emergency.  Now, we 
haven't declared war on a single country since W.W.II.  I'm not that worries 
>about having to be drafted over a declared war.  Especially when ground 
>(infantry) warfare is almost obsolete for the U$ military, and the Kosovo 
>issue is in mind proof of this.  Why risk our own people when we can just 
>sit back and fire rockets at little impoverished nations and reduce the 
>populations of said nations to composite atoms.  

I'm afraid you've missed your guess.  You are correct that the US has not 
declared war since WW II, but the draft only ended in the 1970's.  The US can 
draft without any kind of emergency or war.  

IMHO, the biggest reason the draft has not been brought back is the anti-
authoritarian behavior exhibited by the disillusioned draftees at the end of 
the Vietnam conflict (not war, officially).  I'll bet the current officer 
core does not want the wtord "fragging" to again become part of the average 
GI's lexicon.  That's a lot less likely to happen with an all-volunteer 
force.