Dear Friends,
It seems to me that the question of which system is most just, a volunteer army or a conscripted one is best answered by first asking what is an army for? To seek to find the answer to the first question without asking the second is like deciding what an airplane should be made of before you design it and determine the material attributes needed for it’s parts. Putting the cart before the horse.
Nations and countries have standing armies to protect themselves from other nations and countries. At one time it was city states but now it is nations and countries. A standing army is a drain on the resources of a country however. That drain must be tallied against the present and future need.
History shows us that city states, empires, and nations have fared best when they have had a professional standing army that is well trained, well disciplined and most of all well motivated. These traits are most likely to be found in a volunteer not a draftee.
Future need can only be guessed at with nothing but uncertainty. The Allies never envisioned the Wermacht outflanking the Marginot Line. The Romans never imagined the Huns would be so effective against their legions and the Arabs never believed Moshe Sharon’s offensive would be so devastating. Present need is manifestly obvious but is no indicator of future need.
Now the question of how on Earth are we to protect ourselves from such evils? The answer to that question can be found in history. The motivation of an army can never be underestimated. The history of Bonaparte (as related by Von Clausewitz) tells us all we need to know about motivation. Bonaparte always fought multiple armies with his one. The battle of Austerlitz is but one example. He got the upper hand by using weather, terrain, massed artillery and esprit de corps. Regardless that Napoleon was an aggressor his tactics are enlightening. Motivation like Bonaparte’s army had is only to be had in a volunteer army.
History also shows us that members of the army were the Elite in many cultures. All culture that practiced slavery were of this group. Even Roman armies were considered the upper class and was a path to being a citizen for non Romans. For Romans honorable service to Rome sometimes led to becoming a patriarch. It is only a recent phenomenon that the army is seen as a career path for lower classes. Basically, since the rise of nationalism, has the lower class been the cannon fodder of a nation.
History again teaches us something here. Nations that had professional standing armies of volunteers faired better in combat against conscripts every time. One of the reason’s the US has so few casualties in the war on terror is the professional nature of the army. Conscripted armies have always been shown (empirically) to suffer much higher casualty rates. High casualty rates lower the efficiency of an army. As General Patton said. “No one ever won a war by dieing for his country… he won the war by getting the poor bastard on the other side to die for his country.”
Conscription is always rife with deferments. During the Vietnam War the youths of the day would say, “I’m not a Senator’s son.” meaning they would be subject to the draft where a Senator’s son would not. That undermines any argument that conscription is more just. If the ends we seek are a just way to populate the military rather than defending the nation.
Conscription also denies the fundamental fact that people are ends in themselves. To force a person to fight for his country and possibly die while another is deferred is fundamentally unjust. Because to do so treats a person as a tool for the Elite to use. Conscription is only “Just” if it is absolutely universal (which it can never be).
Conscription also fosters political interference in the army. Political appointments are always a bad idea. History shows us that without uncertainty. Armies (to be efficient) must be meritocracies. They can be no other way. To do so would be to relive the Italian Campaign in the Balkans during WWII.
So if we want an army that is cost efficient, efficient on the battlefield, is able to adapt to new problems and is motivated to get the job done the answer is an all volunteer army. If we want to use the defense of the nation as a social laboratory then conscription is the answer.
But… that path leads to extinction…
