> But the "all-volunteer" army is also a form of involuntary servitude. At
> least with a draft, the privileged asses of Biff an Muffy will be taken
> out of their graduate seminars and plopped down in combat.
>
> If that happened, the troops would be out of Iraq in 36 hours. If you
> want to stop a foreign war, make sure that who goes to fight it is a
> matter of pure luck.
========================
It's true there would be a form of rough justice for Biff and Muffy, which
might well lead one or both to oppose foreign wars or to emigrate to Canada,
as during Vietnam.
But the downside risk of a draft is greater. A major reason why the US is bogged down in Iraq is because its regular army and reserves are stretched too thin. A lot of antwar pressure on Congress is coming from military families who are objecting to extended and repeated tours for their loved ones in a war which is perceived as unwinnable because there are not enough forces on the ground. The US political establishment also no longer feels it is able to credibly intervene, if it needs to, on multiple fronts such as North Korea or Latin America. Congress will address this deficiency by making a bipartisan attempt to increase the size of the military, but a draft, despite Rangel, is not in the cards.
It's also worth remembering that the US army has a very long tail, and that, even were there a draft, working class and minority troops would still bear the brunt of combat, as in Vietnam, while more privileged young Americans would be mainly involved in less risky support roles.