Back in the sixties as I approached the age of eighteen, a much-discussed topic in this country was The Draft. I don't mean to suggest anyone was talking about it because of me…but with the war in Vietnam killing so many American soldiers, and with so many questions about whether the battle was worth it, the topic was inevitable. My recollection is that the debate generally (there were exceptions) broke down as follows: You had your right-wing, conservative, mostly-Republican faction arguing that The Draft was a good thing; that any young man should be proud and delighted to go off and fight wherever his nation's military advisers wanted him to fight. Some, including the father of one of my closest friends, suggested that there was something wrong — in a moral and character sense — with anyone who had the slightest hesitation about military service. Against this viewpoint, you had your left-wing, liberal, mostly-Democratic faction suggesting, often cautiously, that The Draft was immoral and perhaps unconstitutional, and that simply as a practical matter, we would be better off with an all-volunteer army. It would be composed of folks who actually wanted to fight and perhaps make a long-range career in the military instead of resenting how it was disrupting their lives.
I followed the debates with obvious self-interest. As I recall, many in the first (right-wing) group reacted to the notion of a Volunteer Army as if liberals had suggested unconditional surrender to the Commies. During the '68 election, Hubert Humphrey was asked about ending The Draft and he gave an evasive, non-response along the lines of, "Well, as president, I'll look into the practicality of that." He was immediately bludgeoned by the opposition — Spiro Agnew, mainly — arguing that to even raise that possibility was an act of treason that proved Humphrey was unfit for office. Later on, of course, the Nixon-Agnew administration presided over the dismantling of The Draft, thereby taking pride in what they had previously dismissed as an abomination. I thought at the time that if a President Humphrey had done that, Nixon and his mob would have called for impeachment and for everyone responsible to be shot at sunrise. But it was okay when they did it and it seemed to work fine. It has taken until now for there to be any serious talk in this country about reinstating The Draft.
One of the big arguments in the sixties against a Volunteer Army was its cost. Some suggested it was distasteful and unwise to try and pay soldiers enough to make the military an attractive career alternative. I remember a guest on the old Lou Gordon talk show actually arguing that a good soldier was there out of patriotism, not avarice, and that as pay scales went up, the character of the American Soldier would go down. Gordon asked him how he felt about draftees who didn't want to be there at all, and the guy fumbled out some double-talk about how no one really didn't want to go to Vietnam…that was a lie of the liberal press. When reality fails you, blame the media.
The thing that really struck me as odd at the time was that the same folks arguing that it was wrong to throw money at soldiers were the ones admonishing us to "support our troops" by not opposing the war. They were also the same folks who attacked politicians as "weak on defense" if they didn't throw enough money at Lockheed, McDonnell-Douglas, DuPont and other makers of military hardware. There was this idea that soldiers should accept low pay out of patriotism…but we shouldn't expect American Business to not make as much profit as possible off the war. We should not skimp on buying the most sophisticated, expensive planes in the world but we should not waste government money on the folks who fly them. Even today, politicians are attacked for opposing certain weapons systems…but it doesn't seem to be a sin for them to cut military pay or veterans' benefits.
I am no longer worried about The Draft destroying my life but I would hate to see it destroy anyone's. Our government is spending a ton of money on the war in Iraq (see here) and I don't think anyone doubts that a lot of it is either being spent foolishly or is just going into the pockets of suppliers and outside contractors. Before we bring involuntary conscription back to this country, I'd like to see us try to steer some of those Halliburton profits into the pockets of our fighting men and women. I think we should drop the hokey patriotic rhetoric that serving your country should be sufficient reward…and actually pay the military what it takes to have a first-rate, eager-to-serve army of sufficient size and morale. And I refuse to listen to any more admonitions to "support our military" from people who, when it comes to spending money, aren't willing to support our military.