Harry Levins writes about military matters for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In today’s column he reflects on professional armed forces vs. the draft. A recent article in Proceedings, a magazine aimed at military readers, has caused Levins to rethink his anti-draft position. The article was written by Navy Captain John Byron, who wrote,

Thirty years of the All Volunteer Force have given the President a mercenary military unrepresentative of the nation it serves. These kids in uniform aren’t our kids. . . [allowing us to] blithely accept the war’s cost in young lives. . . .

[Consider] the ease with which [the All Volunteer Force] allows the President to make war. Give the Chief Executive his own army, and by golly, he’ll use it. Well, we did and he has. . . .

This may help explain why the wars of recent years have all been undeclared wars.

There are powerful arguments for professional armed forces, of course, mostly because they are better able to wage a technological war which is arguably less costly in human lives. (It depends on whose lives you have in mind.)

Dave, safely beyond draft age.