>Now on the
> assumption that the U.S. is involved in just one phase of what has been
> and will be an endless war to maintain order in global capitalism, it
> will face (and is facing) problems of maintaining adequate military
> forces. If counter-recruitment were made a major, perhaps central,
> tactic of the anti-war movement, this could be in fact the best way to
> campagn for a draft. And in the meantime, let us recognize that we are a
> very minor force, and that nothingf we do is going to be translated in
> to government practice. That is, our formal campaigning for a draft
> would have no material effect while dividing our forces, while we might
> have a real effect, at some point, in choking off the flow of
> volunteers.
>
> Thoughts?
=========================
I agree with Doug that US political and military leaders learned about the
downside of a conscript army in Vietnam, both from the mutinous pot-smoking
troops in the field and draft-averse students at home. That's when they
hastily turned to a professional army, and why the return of a draft is
improbable, particularly since military technology has advanced and the
student population has swelled.
I think they lean towards an even leaner military safely deploying drones and other robotic technology from outside the war zones, with small teams of US special forces training and leading foreign mercenary armies. They're running into resistance, of course, from military contractors and congressional representatives from the many districts which rely on defence spending.
I doubt an anti-recruitment campaign by mainly white middle class students would have much success in these job-hungry communities or among young workers, many of them black and hispanic, for whom the military provides the only source of steady employment.
And I doubt a parallel (and contradictory?) campaign to restore the draft would have much success on campuses.
Better to keep the focus on the withdrawal of US armed forces of whatever kind - professional or conscript - from places where they don't belong. Encouraging the conscription of young American workers and students into an imperialist army would strike me as a peculiar kind of "democratic" demand for the US left to be making.