Hey, not so fast

Bringing Back the Draft Won’t Stop Unnecessary Wars

Brian O'Brien in The American Conservative rebuts a piece in favor of restoring the draft that appeared in The American Conservative.

No, we would not have less war. 

In fact, when we’ve had a draft we’ve actually had more war and more Americans killed in battle by several orders of magnitude.

In one 33-year period from 1940 to 1973 when conscription was in effect, we had three of the largest wars in American history, resulting in 497,271 Americans killed. 

In the 44 years since the end of the draft, we’ve engaged in a series of small overseas conflicts and three undeclared wars with about 7,000 Americans killed. 

About as many of our countrymen were killed in the Normandy landings than in all the wars since the end of the draft.

America has never fought a war with volunteers in which more than 10,000 Americans were killed in action. 

America has never fought a war with draftees in which there were fewer than 30,000 KIAs. 

There is no question about it: our biggest and highest-casualty wars have been fought with drafted troops.

The Korean War had the lowest body count of our conflicts fought with draftees, with 33,686 Americans killed in combat. 

Of our wars fought with volunteers, the Revolutionary War had the highest body count with about 8,000 Americans killed in combat. 

If you include the 17,000 deaths by disease and other causes, the total dead in the Revolutionary War are still fewer than combat deaths alone in the Korean War.

American combat deaths in all our wars fought with draftees total 641,007. 

This does not include the hundreds of thousands of servicemembers who died of disease. 

All American combat deaths in wars fought with volunteers totals 25,434. 

This includes the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Indian wars, the Spanish-American War, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the conflicts and skirmishes in between.

Wars fought with draftees have resulted in 25 times more combat deaths than in all our wars fought with volunteers. 

Not twice as many. 

Not three times as many. 

Twenty-five times the number of KIAs.

Clear, now?

And finally this America First-ish conclusion.

The true purpose of the draft is to provide large numbers of young bodies for overseas invasions—invasions in which tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Americans have been killed.

We do not need a draft for the defense of the United States. 

If Americans believe their nation is worth fighting for, they will choose to protect their homes and communities of their own free will and self-interest. 

The Revolutionary War was fought by volunteers who defeated the most powerful empire of their day. 

Not a single draftee was among them.

In 2017, the number of Americans serving in the active-duty component of our armed forces is 1,281,900, with another 801,200 in our reserve components. 

Every last one is a volunteer. 

Our volunteer military is professional and certainly large enough to defend our nation from attack from any enemy. 

We are in a much stronger position today than we were in Washington’s time.

What we really need to do is drastically reduce our military spending and the size of our armed forces. 

In this age of nuclear weapons, the possibility of America being militarily conquered is zero. 

Giving up our role as a global police force and instead concentrating on the defense of the North American continent would enhance our safety and security while also increasing our prosperity and domestic tranquility.