Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Bring back the draft?

Millionaire senator talks about reviving forced conscription

From the time of the Roman galleys (their impressive "gull wings" referred to by the poets were not sails, but banks of slave-driven oars) through the age of Nelson, admirals around the world contended no world-class Navy could function without manning its vessels with "pressed men" or slaves.

They were wrong. Both changing technologies and changing moral values eliminated both the feared "press gang" and the holds full of men forced to fight against their will. Today, the world's most powerful navies can extend power in ways Lord Nelson never imagined ... and integral to that efficient functioning is the fact that none of their sailors are untrained day laborers, waking up with knots on their heads and wondering how they got there.

But now Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., has raised the possibility that compulsory military service -- eliminated 30 years ago in the bitter aftermath of Vietnam -- might again be necessary. The nation is engaged "in a generational war here against terrorism," Hagel said. "It's going to require resources."

"Should we continue to burden the middle class who represents most all of our soldiers, and the lower-middle class?" Sen. Hagel asked. "Should we burden them with the fighting and the dying if in fact this is a generational -- probably 25-year -- war?"

If he's really that dedicated to seeing more millionaires in uniform, Sen. Hagel is, of course, free to volunteer.

Failing that, this "burdening" rhetoric is an interesting new approach to class warfare. Not very many rich people volunteer to work in the coal mines for the current rate of pay. Wouldn't it be "fairer" to send out press gangs in Beverly Hills and Scarsdale and Grosse Pointe Farms, rounding up rich people at gunpoint and forcing them to pull a few shifts in Consolidated Shaft No. 4?

It is not moral to force free people to do things against their will. If the current United States armed forces are truly not adequate to meet her global commitments, there are two good answers:

-- Raise military pay and benefits, and recruit more volunteers. Any combat commander will tell you he'd rather have 50 well-trained and willing soldiers with high morale, than 100 skulking would-be deserters.

-- But if our 10-division volunteer army appears inadequate to meet this administration's worldwide commitments, it may be past time to re-examine the worthiness of many of those 20- or even 50-year-old operations.

America's all-volunteer force as it has emerged since 1973 is unsurpassed in the world for its professionalism. Yes, reforms are needed to reduce the stress on the families of our servicemen -- particularly reservists with other careers who were led to believe they would be called up only in pressing, short-term emergencies.

The Congress must finally acknowledge and fully fund our real military needs -- and meantime pare away many expensive foreign commitments that are no longer truly necessary.