>there’s no need for a draft because ranks will be filled with volunteers This reflects the fact that the US military has learned how to carry on a substantial

>there’s no need for a draft because ranks will be filled with volunteers This reflects the fact that the US military has learned how to carry on a substantial conflict without large numbers of casualties. That sounds like a great achievement. But I think it's the problem. There shouldn't be wars that can be run by a relatively small number of volunteers. That is the problem. WWII and the US Civil War had drafts. I wish I could find some cartoons that I remember from fairly soon after 9/11, about the dread people had that we were headed straight to hell in the military response. I remember them as profoundly different from what you might see today with a left-wing slant, exactly because of the general sense of unity and nonpartisan feeling. Foreseeing the obvious subsequent events meant being against seemingly everyone and not just the red or blue tribe. My recollection (of what I read more recently) is that only one congressperson voted against war in Iraq.