Military Draft Research Paper

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Conscription in the United States, more commonly referred to as the draft is a program that drafts eligible young men into the armed forces to fill vacancies in times of trouble. The general idea of the draft is one that has been around since the colonial times. The colonies used a system known as the militia system that required all able-bodied men to enroll in the military and even go as far as to take on a small amount of military training so they were prepared if they were really needed in a time of conflict. The first time the draft was actually employed was during the American Civil War. The biggest uproar involving the draft, though happened during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War is known as the most opposed war that has ever been…show more content…
This idea has been expanded on throughout history and has developed into the draft that we know today. The conscription didn’t completely end until 1968 during the presidential election. It was Richard Nixon’s campaign promise to end the draft. He did this primarily because he knew that if he got rid of the draft, most of the anti-Vietnam protests would fall. Now, we do not have an active draft, though all males are required to register for the draft, and if they do not, they can face up to five years in prison. Keeping all of this in mind, there has been a lot of talk recently about the probability of reinstating the draft, and its effectiveness in today’s society. A close analysis of the draft clearly shows that it is ineffective and unfair…show more content…
The armed forces currently have no problems in any areas of recruiting. It has actually recently been determined that in most cases, the armed forces are recruiting well over 100% of their target goals. The draft’s main purpose is to stock up the military with eligible young individuals. If all of those goals are being met, the draft becomes unnecessary. In order to successfully bring back the draft, the armed forces would have to do two major things. First of all, they would have to dramatically increase the size of the military, which would include a complete overall upsize in materials as well as cost. The next step would be to section of a complete force of the military that could be made up completely of individuals that were drafted. However, this makes absolutely no sense, simply because implementing something of this nature would mean having to turn away eligible recruits. Therefore, reinstating the draft at this point would be completely pointless simply because there is no way to completely formulate an effective method to manage these troops. It would be absolutely insane to even think that turning away eligible volunteers in favor of individuals forced into the situation is a smart decision. The process that it would take in order to sort through all of the military aged youth just a complete waste of energy for something that will yield virtually no positive

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