By Derek Klobucher
Medill News Serve

WASHINGTON -- “It’s going to depend on the military needs of the United States of America,” a member of Congress said about reinstituting the draft.

Each member of the U.S. armed forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today joined the service voluntarily.  But military duty has not always been a choice.

“If indeed we have troops invading and occupying Iraq, and if indeed we take a look at Iran and other areas, it’s already been established that we don’t have a sufficient number of volunteers,” said Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., who advocates a return to conscription.

“Even when we had the last draft, they excluded those kids who were able to go to college and to go and get graduate degrees,” Rangel said.  “That is so totally unfair.”

But is the American public ready for another draft?

“I think it’s politically untenable,” said Thomas W. Collier, a retired history lecturer from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  “And I don’t think the military wants it.”

The current generation of generals is experienced mainly with an all-volunteer military, according to Collier.  He added that the few who remember conscription do not want to go back.

“I don’t think the kids today are particularly anxious to get drafted,” Collier joked.  “Neither are their mothers and fathers.”

American voters and the military would oppose the draft, said Collier, 79, who is also a retired Army officer, having served three tours in Vietnam.

“The experience of Vietnam and the people who are in their 40s and 50s either remember Vietnam personally or were kids at that time and have grown up with the attitude that draftees got dumped on,” Collier said.

“It’s also an admission that the present system is not working,” Collier said.  “I don’t think either the high-ranking military or the president want to make that admission.”