I've discussed the misleading term "back door draft" in another 
article (see the link at the bottom of the page).  My conclusion 
is that it's a term made up by someone totally out of touch with 
today's all volunteer military.

That does bring up a question, though:  is there a possibility 
that a draft will be reinstated over the next few years?

President Bush has stated that there will be no draft as long 
as he is President.  Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, a strong 
proponent of quality over quantity in the military, has 
explained why he thinks a draft would be counterproductive:  
very few draftees reenlist at the end of their obligations, 
so a draft forces the military to be constantly training new 
personnel.  Time spent training is time that's not spent doing 
more productive things - driving ships, flying airplanes, 
peacekeeping or fighting - so the military has to add a lot 
of extra people to make up for it.  And with all the extra 
people, they can no longer afford to pay enough to attract 
motivated volunteers, or even properly compensate the draftees.

Very few of the men and women in today's military would argue 
for a draft.  They'd prefer that they be fighting alongside 
people who volunteered to be there, like they did.

What about Senator Kerry?  He hasn't provided as direct an 
answer as Bush has; Kerry says he plans to pursue policies 
that won't make a draft necessary.

The problem is, Presidents rarely get to pursue their policies 
unmodified; they have to deal with political realities, and 
they have to deal with Congress.  Presumably Kerry figures 
he'll get out of Iraq since he didn't start that war.  But 
will Congress let him just cut and run, or will there be 
pressure for a result that can be viewed in some positive 
light?

The last time we had a president with a war that he didn't start, 
but with a congress that wouldn't let him leave, it was Lyndon 
Johnson; the result in Vietnam was that Johnson, who didn't 
believe in the war, couldn't win it or end it.  Instead he sort 
of went with the flow, in the process increasing U.S. forces 
there from less than 100,000 when he took office to 500,000 at 
the peak, greatly increasing the draft in the process.

I'm quite concerned that the same thing might well happen under 
Kerry, especially as he often goes with what's politically 
popular and easy.  It's to be noted that the recent draft bill 
was introduced by a Democrat, and while only two other 
representatives voted to pass it, they were both Democrats too.

I'm more comfortable with the commitment of Rumsfeld and the 
Bush administration to the smaller, higher quality military 
that one gets from an all volunteer force.

Back to Warren J Dew's home page