Axar.az presents the article "How I learned to love the draft" by John Samuel Tieman.

I am a Vietnam veteran. Like many in my generation, I hate the draft. But I now favor drafting men. And now I favor drafting women.

You may ask, “Doesn't America have an all volunteer military?” Yes. There's been no conscription since shortly after the Vietnam War. Nonetheless, males are required to register at age 18. One of the only areas where the law allows the exclusion of women is the draft. The Supreme Court recently decided to not hear a case concerning the compulsory registration of women for conscription. The high court decided to leave it to Congress. Congress is now debating this matter.

I hate the draft, but I hate one thing more. I hate ignorance that threatens democracy and sometimes passes for patriotism. In 2011, the Pew Research Center noted that, while Americans overwhelmingly say they feel proud of those who serve, 71% say they know little or nothing about the military. That same study found that 74% oppose reinstating a draft. Many of these same folks put “Support The Troops” bumper stickers on their cars, say “Thank you for your service” to a veteran, then think their patriotism satisfied, their duty well done.

A few years ago, just before I retired, I taught high school. I had a class of seniors, seventeen and eighteen years of age. I mentioned the “wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” A student responded, “We're fighting two wars? I didn't know we were fighting one.” I asked the class about their feelings concerning these wars. They didn't feel much. One student had a cousin in the National Guard.

The burden of service falls upon a tiny fraction of society, with whom most folks have no connection. This ignorance insulates these folks. I keep up with my old Army unit, the 4th Infantry Division. At the time that I was talking to that class, young folks then in the 4th, who volunteered for six years, spent two, three and even four years in a war zone. So one kid spent years in Iraq, while another kid didn't even know there was a war. As for the rest of us, few were in any sense engaged. No one was rationed. No one paid a penny in war tax, because we passed that cost to the next generation. At any one given time, one-half of one per cent of our entire population served in uniform during these wars. During World War II, slightly more than one in ten Americans served in uniform. During Vietnam, it was slightly less than one out of twenty. Today, veterans are about 7% of our entire population.

Our constitution provides for civilian control of the military at both the state and national levels. That requires knowledge, information. Our Founders presumed that part of that knowledge would be derived from the participation of the citizen-soldier. I hate the draft. I also hate that so few of my fellow Americans can tell the difference between a corporal and a colonel. There is an alternative to the conscription of men and women. We could become informed. We could become politically engaged. But I despair of that solution. As my students used to say, “How's that going so far?”

So I favour drafting both men and women. But my own opinion makes me sad. While I was watching “The NewsHour” one Friday, I again paused for that moment when, in silence, they showed the names and pictures of those who died that week in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'd grown accustomed to those stern poses of young folks in uniforms. But sometimes, when the military photo was unavailable, there was a picture of this kid at a ball game or a party. Nothing quite prepared me for one photo, a Private First Class in her wedding dress.