Reply #11: I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you're incorrect

[CornField]

1) Procedurally difficult - the Admin will have little say over the actual passage of a draft because it's a Congressional function, and they've only got about three years left as it is. And from the time you decide a draft is needed until the time it actually happens can take months, and from the time those drafted are trained you're looking at a year and a half to nearly two years. That's not counting any number of Congressional debates and hearings on the subject, which will asuredly push the timetable even further.

The SSS plan for the 2004 fiscal year, outlined in Strategic Objective 1.2, reduced conscription time to 75 days. In March 2005, a report was issued by the Director of the SSS to the Pentagon that the system was ready to hold the first draft lottery within 75 days, rather than the usual 193 days.

Link to the SSS Performance Plan: http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html

2) Generally inefficient - Unless you can convince a significant number of conscripts to stay on, they'll be released from service before they even get into the field with the training required for todays military.

You assume the military would only be interested in drafting combat troops.

“In line with today’s needs, the Selective Service System’s structure, programs and activities should be re-engineered toward maintaining a national inventory of American men and, for the first time, women, ages 18 through 34, with an added focus on identifying individuals with critical skills,” the agency said in a Feb. 11, 2003 proposal presented to senior Pentagon officials. (The Skilled Draft Proposal, originally reported by Eric Rosenburg of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

3) Politically suicidal - The only draft legilsation that's recently been offered is mostly for the purposes of making political statements, not because DoD is actually looking for or wants a draft. Anyone serious about it would probably not find many allies and probably not find themselves in office much longer.

Perhaps. I guess that one really remains to be seen. In the fall of 2003, according to Family Circle magazine, Rove polled Republican members of Congress on how they felt about the draft. The Congressional leaders said they would support the president.

4) The military isn't designed solely around manpower anymore - BRAC and transformation are major steps away from huge force structures. We're not prepping to fight major conflicts ala WWII anymore. The new emphasis is on more mobile, specialized forces.

I'd point you back to the Skilled Draft Proposal.

5) No one wants it anyway.

Well, I can't argue much with that one. At least no one I know wants a draft.