Reinstate the draft

Counter-intuitive as it might seem, a military draft would discourage war. Currently, when an administration and Congress declare war, they do so with the knowledge that only a small percentage of Americans — roughly 1 percent — will be directly affected by it. To the rest of us, war is just one more tax burden for which to blame Congress.

Some in Congress are calling for the deployment of tens of thousands of Americans back to Iraq — and their political base is encouraging them to do so. But, do they really care? The personal risks do not hit home for them.

With a draft, however, and without any deferments whatsoever, Washington would think twice before declaring war especially unnecessary ones, such as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Reinstate the draft."