Military Draft Essay

Words: 777
Pages: 4

During WWII, 66% of American armed forces members were drafted, while in the Vietnam War, draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths. Furthermore, the U.S. has been, almost since its beginning, a military powerhouse. In the past, the United States Army services have used different methods for acquiring more people to serve in the military. One of them is the draft, a system which selects men into obligatory military service. Fortunately, the government does not currently have a draft policy. On the other hand, there is the method of enlisting, the process of taking an oath of U.S. Army service and becoming a soldier by choice. Each citizen should decide whether he or she wants to serve in the military since the thirteenth amendment states that forcing one to serve is unconstitutional, and history proves that the draft actually causes harm and conflict.
First, the draft violates the rights of the people given by the constitution, thus it should
…show more content…
Many draft victims filed for the status of Conscientious Objector, a person opposing to serve in the armed forces. “While others facing the draft fled to Canada, others burned their draft cards in protest to both the war and the draft” (Jahnkow 1). Conscription supporters have said in the past that the Selective Service System has “favored privileged youths” (Jahnkow 1) and therefore did not trigger elite opposition that they believe would have stopped the Vietnam War sooner. In contrast, though, “there is no evidence that drafting a few more affluent kids would have made a difference, since initial support for the war was high and was driven by a general Cold War fever” (Jahnkow 1), which was successfully infecting America and making the entire population fall into a sickness of conflict, partly because of the militarized mentality instituted by the