Universal Military Conscription In American History

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The Universal Military Conscription in American History The use of the military conscription, or draft, throughout American history is a controversial topic. It is not often argued about presently, but when it is, it is done passionately so. I fully support the use of the military draft throughout our history for numerous practical reasons. First of all, the U.S. government has a constitutional obligation to protect and defend its citizens. Secondly, it is our responsibility as free American citizens to abide by the draft and fight for our country. Next is the fact that it was an honorable and dutiful way to give back to our country that has given so much to us. And lastly, without the draft we would not have been successful in the wars that …show more content…
Their stance opposing can basically be summed up in two points. First, many claim that the daft contradicts exactly what America stands for: freedom. Objectors say that being forced to participate in the war takes away an individual’s freedom, but I would ask them this: without the draft we would not have had enough men to fight in these wars and consequently would have lost, and then where would your freedom, if you still had any, be? Secondly, and lastly, they say that the draft is unconstitutional, which is an inaccurate statement. The United States Constitution says that Congress shall have the power “to raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;” as well as the right “to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;” (Article 1, Section 8). In other words, the government had the right to do whatever it took to raise an army to defend our country and our rights. Therefore, the draft is constitutional. Those two ill-informed reasons sums of the objections of the …show more content…
the aforementioned rights and freedoms). When drafted, it was those Americans’ duties to join the army and sacrifice their personal freedom for the freedom of the other millions of American citizens. If that’s not honorable and heroic, then I don’t know what is. Duty aside, it was also a very fulfilling thing to do. The soldiers in the army don’t exclusively fight in the war and kill people; there are many roles a soldier and member of the army can play, many, if not all, of which can morally fulfill us and strengthen our patriotism. The military’s mission is not one of violence. The unawareness of this affects the number of people who volunteer to join. It is hypothesized that many people are unaware of what being in the military actually means and by being presented with such a negative image of the military by mass media they are uninclined to ever join the military AND their negative views affect those who were previously interested in joining the army (Faris,