Skeeter -
Dunno, there are times when I do think we are led to believe that all countries should be like us, those times when certain ambitious leaders appear to be insisting not just on Democracy, but on a particular BRAND of it... saying out of one side of the mouth one thing and meaning another to themselves, with a high-minded agenda that has nothing at all to do with what the rest of us think is being fought over.
But also, somehow it is not just the USA that will always be at war... war just is, like flies and chiggers and mosquitoes and fleas... cannot get rid of it... the little guys will always be taking shots at the big ones, some of the big ones will always be trying to acquire or control the little ones, and some folks are just plain sadistic bloodthirsty murderous criminals with charisma or bigger guns.
There is a sense in which I might imagine a draft would not be useful... when the war gets close enough to one's own front door it has a tendency to awaken the juices sufficiently for man or woman to pick up any stick handy and do their best to beat back an invader... at which time no little order from a Draft Board is gonna mean one damn thing. Preparedness, then, is the matter at hand, so far as I can reason it out... some of us prefer to be ready, some of us prefer to let other people get ready because we know they are gonna do so, and it is (to those who believe that way) our hope and prayer that they are mean as hell adequately to fight off the terror... it's a gamble I myself am not willing to take... my memory of war history says to me that actually it is a VERY small percentage of all soldiers who ever see combat in any conflict, and of that number the total amount of their stint spent in actual battle is also (usually) relatively brief, albeit it utterly decisive in whether or not the folks at home MUST pick up that handy stick...
So, given that war or battle is inevitable, it seems to me that it would be wiser to accept that reality as being as much a part of human life as is food... and find some reasonable way for there to be a routinely ready support and combat force.
Having said that, I will never get accustomed to the idea of females in battle (PF had a long thread debate a few months back on this topic), thinking as I do like Boats, about my two daughters... I know there are a few of the ladies who are cut out for it and God Bless 'em Thank You... but most are not, by far. Women have shown over the centuries their valor and devotion in war and peace every which way, no doubt. I just do not like the idea of them being sacrificed, raped by the likes of Saddam's Baathist sadists... or (pardon me while I indulge myself) the Russian army entering Berlin, among other countless examples. Doesn't sit well...
For that reason alone, since PC would call for males and females to be drafted... unless the ladies could opt in or out of combat duty, it'd be enough to make me agin' the whole concept.
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