The reasons are both practical and political. For one, the United States may already have all the troops it needs. Out of 2 million active-duty soldiers and 1.6 million reservists and National Guardsmen, there are now about 500,000 troops in the gulf “We have a long way to go before we’ll need more forces,” says Pentagon spokesman William Caldwell. Politically, conscription is about as popular as Saddam Hussein at a Fourth of July party - a point that seems not to have escaped George Bush. He told reporters last week that he has no intention of resorting to a draft:
Advocates of the current system say the all-volunteer Army ensures a willing work force, and recruitment numbers are up since the war began. And, even if enlistment slackens, the war might be over before a new draft could implemented. Some legislators argue that even if conscription were instituted today, it would be of little use in solving immediate problems in the gulf. New recruits would have to spend months in training. And a draft wouldn’t produce the doctors and other skilled personnel that the armed forces are desperate for. “The people who we have registered for the draft we don’t need, and what we need, we don’t have.” says Democratic Rep. Pat Schroeder.
But some lawmakers and government officials believe a draft might become necessary in the unlikely event of a protracted war in the gulf The United States ended conscription in 1973, after an era of protests and draft-card burning. New regulations have been in place since 1971, but reinstituting a draft would take an act of Congress. Under the new law, student exemptions would be all but eliminated and hardship deferments, frequently awarded during the Vietnam War, would be scarce. Men turning 20 in each calendar year in which the draft is in effect would be the first to be called.
Proponents of such a plan argue that it is the only equitable way to build a nation’s defenses. A draft treats everyone - from investment bankers to ditch diggers - equally and would help ensure that more middle- and upper-class Americans would have to serve the military. (During the Vietnam era, however, many well-to-do Americans found ways to beat the draft.) Some say the draft may also be a way to discourage military adventurism. “If we had had the draft, I don’t think there would have been this tremendous commitment of troops to the Persian Gulf in the first place,” says Charles Peters, editor of The Washington Monthly. “George Bush’s friends would have called him up and said, ‘Well, George it’s August and Jason, my son, can’t stand the heat of the desert’.”
Yet with the threat of a ground war looming, Americans worry about what the future holds. At the Selective Service headquarters in Washington one day recently, a woman phoned to ask if her grandson could get a deferment for having braces on his teeth. Even before a draft becomes a realistic prospect, many Americans are already exploring ways to beat it.
