In January 2003, as plans for war in Iraq mounted, US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld ruled out re-initiating the military draft, saying, “there is no need for it at all. It seems to me that the way we're currently organised and operating is vastly preferable. We have people serving today - God bless them - because they volunteered.”
In some sense he is right, the compulsory draft was eliminated in the United States in 1973. However, Rumsfeld's comment misses two important points…