Feeling a Draft?

"Contributing to the conspiracy of silence on all sides is the gross unfairness of the way we now share the risk and burden of fighting for one's country. The current distribution is consistent with periods when the United States had a draft that the sons of privilege could readily evade, by hiring 'replacements' during the Civil War, or getting an educational deferment or lobbying one's draft board during the Vietnam era. Once again, young people without good opportunities in life are handling the fighting and dying for those with better things to do—only this time, there is not even a pretense of shared responsibility for defending the country. Such injustice is hard to face up to in a country where social equality remains the civic religion."

Jacob Weisberg in Slate analyzes the unfairness of the all-volunteer military.

And in Slate in August 2007, Fred Kaplan writes that a draft may be necessary in order for the United States to maintain its international military profile.