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There's really no simple way to assess the possible effects of a new draft ... social, economic, political ... in advance. We have the history of wartime drafts that were instituted in 1861, 1917, 1940s and continuing through the 1960s. For those laws, there were upheavals, including draft riots in Boston and New York in 1862, and some anti-war draft card burning in the 1960s. The draft, like any other imposed emergency law, was also manipulated by politicians, industry, clergy and the infamous individuals who evaded call-ups, the draft dodgers.

The strongest most recent advocacy for a draft was in the aftermath of 9/11/01, when America was shocked into the realization that we were possibly being forced into a world war. The talk has quieted down since, primarily because our international commitments have so far been met by our regular and active reserve forces. However, as with the murder of Mrs. Bhutto in Pakistan, a single event could touch off a global war as much as the murder of an archduke did in 1914.

If there is a real threat of a wider war or a significant attack, the American public, as it has done for the past 150 years, would almost certainly accept another draft. When World War II started in 1939, the US had less than 300,000 in its armed forces. The draft was put into practice the next year, but even when the US was attacked by the Japanese in December 1941, draftees had caused the ranks to rise to less than a million. By the end of WWII in 1945, there were 10 million men and women in service, with more than 7 million draftees among them.

There was mild opposition when the draft started in 1940, but after 1941, men went into the service without question and their families accepted the need for fighting the war. However, if a draft were imposed in 2008, even if seemingly is justified by an enemy's attack, with a far different political and economic structure in the country, the question will hang in the air until the actual necessary moment arrives.

There's another critical aspect for imposing a draft now, even though the need for a massive build-up of troops doesn't seem necessary as yet. Many regulars and reservists are now serving their second, third or fourth deployments to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is it fair for them to bear the entire burden of combat and its dangers while the rest of America's citizens stay home? Granted, regulars joined up knowing their military careers would involve foreign deployments, time away from their families, as well as the hazards of war.

However, reservists, like their citizen soldier descendants of other wars, do not expect to interrupt their civilian lives, jobs and families with long, dangerous active duty deployments that, for some are now are stretching into a fifth year. With no end in sight, is it right that all of those now serving in war zones continue to be the only ones who must do it?

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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