Much fanfare and great expectation preceded the Dec. 1 draft lottery. Reform? In theory, maybe, but the hassle is still there. Some 250,000 young men will still be conscripted for military service in 1970. Only the method of selecting them has changed.
While the establishment of a lottery was unquestionably a step in the right direction, the step just isn’t big enough.
There is, of course, another side of the coin. With no draft, an all-volunteer military could exist. To create this mercenary force, military pay would be raised to an incentive level, and benefits would be increased. But, in a mercenary army, there would be fewer questions raised and much less occasion for dissent in a military-industrial-complex.
One possible solution to this impasse would be to limit the volunteer’s enlistment to, for example, a six year maximum term, thus abolishing the draft and still retaining a “civilian army.” Some such solution is badly needed, for while the draft is grossly unjust to the individual’s freedom, a mercenary army would be as bad, if not worse, for any chance the world has at peace and freedom. — Scot Chatterson