Should Young Americans Be Drafted?

 

Pro by Chris Mann

A couple of months ago, President Carter announced that he was trying to get the draft started up again. Almost immediately people started protesting. Why? The situation that called for the President's action is vastly different from that of the unpopular Vietnam conflict. On December 23, the Soviets invaded the peaceful country of Afghanistan. Well, actually the country was not quite peaceful as there were many bands of Moslem rebels fighting against the Moscow controlled puppet government. The president of Afghanistan called for the Russians to come and help fight off the rebels. This was obviously only a play to have Russian tanks and troops pour into Afghanistan.

Add to this mess the fact that the Volunteer Army isn't worth the boots it wears. It's not just a little ridiculous to have soldiers whose average education is limited to the 3rd or 4th grade, who expect more from the government for doing less, who cannot even read the Army training manuals for the weapons whose use would and probably will be required in the event of further Soviet encroachment on the free world; it's down right pathetic.

We need in this time of conflicts an army which can fight a conventional, nonnuclear war, and the only way we can get it is to start up the draft again. Isolationism is not the answer; a strong army and the determination to use it to halt Soviet land grabbing is.


Con by Billy Hines

When the United States got involved with the war in Viet Nam in 1961, nobody dreamed that the U.S. would soon take an active role in fighting a war that couldn't be won. Nor did they figure that the government would need to start drafting young men to fill up the dwindling ranks. Nobody had the foresight to see a nation split apart by people for the war and a greater percentage against it, draft dodgers by the thousands, protest movements at respectable colleges, or about twenty-five thousand young Americans dead as a result of being between the ages of 18 and 25.

Today, we have entangling alliances with a substance called oil, and the future does not look too bright since both Russia and the United States are running out. Now, Russia controls Afghanistan. They're just a stepping stone away from the Middle East, why draft young men (or women) with a life ahead of them and send them to die so the U.S. will have an to supply for about 60 years. If the U.S. were in any real danger, we wouldn't need a draft. Patriotic citizens by the thousands would volunteer to defend the United States. I would rather give up my car instead of my life anyday. The Middle East is a powder key waiting for a greedy nation to cause World War Three.

Haven't we learned a valuable lesson from the Viet Nam Conflict? I wouldn't ever want to fight another man's war for U.S. prestige or for oil.