The Myth of National Service
Commentary
Every few years, someone doom-writes an article about the need to bring back conscription, commonly known in the United States as the draft.
The arguments in favor usually revolve around two concerns.
The first is that the U.S. military, currently an all-volunteer force (AVF), cannot entice enough qualified young men and women to serve, leaving our armed forces undermanned and “hollow.”
A second, larger concern is that the lack of national service—that is, some kind of obligatory public service in which all young men (and presumably women) participate—is somehow deleterious to the nation’s social fabric. National service is seen as a mechanism to bring together young people from across the country’s various economic, racial, and social spectrums, mix them together, and help them understand their common values and goals….