Draft this!

I differ somewhat from Scott on the question of the draft. The draft does have a couple of positive aspects that he doesn’t mention, but that I think are important. First, there’s no real compelling evidence that a draft makes an army worse; a lot of supporters of the all-volunteer force claim this, but conscript forces do quite well historically. At the lowest level, it really doesn’t make a difference whether the soldiers are committed volunteers or grudging conscripts; military institutions are designed to produce social capital, and tend to be quite good at it. Moreover, conscript forces spare us the nonsense that we now see in Iraq. With the lack of sufficient troops to patrol the countryside, we have turned wide swaths of Iraq over to whomever can martial sufficient force, usually local militias. More on that later. On balance, I think conscription increases, rather than decreases, military capabilities.

Second is a point that Scott neglects. Since the advent of all-volunteer service, the armed forces have grown increasingly politically polarized. Forty years ago, someone could be drafted into the military, have a set of leftist political attitudes, yet discover a liking and aptitude for military life. After Vietnam, leftists simply selected themselves out of military service. Consequently, the military turned hard right, with the senior ranks running 90%+ Republican. Gets a little better at lower levels, but given the racial makeup of the military, it’s still not good. Don’t be fooled by the occasional Wes Clark, Anthony Zinni, or even Colin Powell; most of the armed forces are right, and are conservative on just about every issue across the board.

Indeed, this issue is at the core of debate over the draft in France. All-volunteer forces tend to be dominated by conservative elements. Conscript forces don’t. I think that the polarization of the military, and its separation from the rest of American society, is a problem. I don’t know if a draft is the solution, but I think it’s worth looking into.