Vietnam is becoming something of a "Tiger" now, being one of the world's major tourist destinations, (it remains an overwhelmingly beautiful place) and that is more than a little galling to people like me, who lost several good friends over there and had it disrupt several years of my youth. IMO the Draft gives a bunch of psychotic old men the ability to kill lots of young ones and that's what they really want. We agree that it should be on the dustbin of history and I hope it stays there.
Did you serve at that time? Please answer honestly I wasn't born in WWII so we will never know but I have to think that I would probably never serve if I could legally avoid it, that is true. The purpose of a soldier is not to die defending his country but to make a soldier of the enemy country die defending his, I would never be near as that good at that as someone who volunteered to do so. There are plenty of roles in a war for people who don't fight
I served in the Vietnam war but grew accepting that there was a draft and I was more likely than not to be called. I volunteered for the Navy. No, I wasn't a SEAL.
The Great Keggers of the early war determined the character for all the rest as both sides were too drunk for any further fighting.
no to draft, but keep registering no mandate, stay voluntary maybe give national guard more incentives to offer to give basic training for more peeps. trial boot camps? (mini basic) all should be encouraged on some levels. maybe expand the college/technical programs, do it direct and efficiently and include military or skills training. (which is really varied) a few percent turn out to have a real knack for it and make a career. the more peeps that have even a few weeks of training the better.
Not Hardly Normal wised up and took to the streets got us out of Vietnam. That required the draft and spreading the hurt of Not At War, War. aka Endless War
Why just from 18 to 21? We need soldiers of all ages. Three years of active duty and a lifetime of Reserve You see here the Great Conservative Wet Dream, Not a country with an army but an army with a country. Everyone with living lives totally bound up with military discipline and the proper respect for their betters. And especially none of that pesky bs about "rights" the lower orders were always going on about "Only by unquestioning obedience to our leaders can we preserve our Freedom"
We have selective service in place. If we started "running out" just a matter of having the first lottery.