A missed point....
We won't have a draft, because we won't need one soon. There are alots and lots of bodies available, and soon enough they will be enlisting. Because of our economy.
Poor folks will enlist, because the service is a steady paycheck, "3 hots and a cot" etc. We won't need a draft, when the economy gets bad enough (and we are heading that way) people will enlist, even if there is a "war on terror" still going on.
We were attacked, on September 11th, remember? There was a surge in enlistment after that, and if another "attack" happens, there will be another wave of enlistment.
The problem isn't a lack of manpower, it is the commitments our political leadership is making compared to our available forces. The politicians must understand that unlike spending our money, you cannot "spend" more troops than we have. There is no budget deficit possible for military manpower, eventually they will be forced to realize this, and alter their priorities. The general US population will not stand for a draft, not like we had in Vietnam. And not likely any "fair" version either. Rich folks don't want their precious offspring out on the sharp end, that is for the poor folks kids, and the rest of us don't want a draft that doesn't take the rich folks kids along with ours.
And besides, even if a future President wants a draft, isn't it Congress that makes the law? Presidents don't always get what they want from Congress, now do they? I think that even those boneheads in Congress care enough about their jobs not to pass a draft law against the will of the majority of the people.
So, until you see a huge public (dis)information campaign about how we need a draft start up, I wouldn't worry.
Anyway Europe and Asia aren't worth a drop of American blood,
As to this, they very well may not be, but we have nearly 100 years of history and US policy stating otherwise. And failing to keep up in this "tradition" well be seen as a betrayal of all who have sacrificed in the past for these goals.
The USA, being in the unique position of having been the world's most generally advanced and productive nation, and not having fought a land war within our borders for nearly a century and a half (which may have a lot to do with out national might and capability as well) has historically become the "reserve" from which our military has been able to issue forth, to win the European and Asian wars of WW I and WW II, hold agrression at bay in Korea, and Vietnam (which we "lost" as a political decision, not a military one), and perform to date in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ouor political leaders (whom ever they happen to be) are going to have to make some decisions about how and where they want to use the US military in the future, and if they don't make the "right" choices their current terms will be their only terms. Re-instating a draft will go a very long way to making that a reality.
