Mike, I appreciate your analysis, but I disagree, here's why.
1. Morale would not be lifted by enforcing people to join the service. Just the opposite would happen, just as it happened in Vietnam. The services would get a bunch of whiners who never wanted to join, and the senior enlisted would spend more time baby-sitting them, instead of focusing on the mission and improving performance.
2. There is nothing wrong with paying bonuses to recruit qualified people to fill needs. The submarine force has been giving bonuses for years to people of all rates and ranks in order to keep them in. Nuclear trained enlisted people can receive up to 60 grand to re-enlist, sometimes for as little as two years (I've actually given one check out in a no tax zone, talk about smiles all around). Why not pay those brave soldiers big bonuses? Bonuses will fill the vacuum (if it becomes serious), more rapidly and with greater depth than forced conscription. I think you underestimate the affect bonuses can have.
3. It's not politically feasible. The President has already given his word to the American people on this important subject, and breaking faith would also break faith with the troops and lower morale.
4. The American people, by large numbers, do not support a draft. Given our current situation, I think they would rather we left Iraq than force young men to fight and die there.
Mike |
