Fred Kaplan runs the numbers on whether — or how soon — a military draft might be necessary in this country. My own gut feeling is that regardless of the necessity, and assuming there isn't another 9/11 or larger disaster, there's no elected official alive who wants it said that he's the one who brought back the draft. So until they find a way to reinistate it without anyone taking responsibility for it, it won't happen.
It's amazing how the dynamic has changed on this. I was eminently draftable as I approached an age where I might get shipped off to Vietnam. At the time, there was a very real, very loud sentiment from some members of the right wing of this country that it was my duty as an American, that it builds character, that there was something wrong (cowardly, selfish or gay) with any male who had the slightest reticence about military service. If you were my age, you got that a lot…from, of course, people who were not going to get drafted. One friend of mine called them the "You Should Be Willing To Die For Me" crowd.
One wonders how much of that we'd be hearing today if the Iraq War could be blamed wholly or even primarily on Democrats. We seem to be at around a 68% disapproval of the war in this country. What would it be like if a large percentage of those dying over there were draftees who didn't want to be in the military in the first place? I'm guessing over 80% disapproval and even that may be low.