Politicians (and Others) on The Draft

An ever-growing quotation bank of politicians and other leaders on the draft:

"Our all-volunteer army will remain an all-volunteer army... We will not have a draft... The only politicians that supported a draft are democrats, and the best way to avoid a draft is to vote for me."
-- George W. Bush, President (source)

"We're not going to reimplement a draft. There is no need for it at all. The disadvantages of using compulsion to bring into the armed forces the men and women needed are notable"
-- Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense (source)

"Secretary Rumsfeld should know that the Vietnam War could not have continued for 10 years without a military draft of honorable Americans who accepted their military obligations."
-- Thomas Corey, Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) President (source)

“You only have to look at troop levels to realize we don’t have the numbers to do the job in Iraq properly.”
-- Charles Pena, the Cato Institute (source)

The "draft violates the very principles of individual liberty upon which our nation was founded... All drafts hit the most vulnerable young people, as the elites learn quickly how to avoid the risks of combat... The draft encourages wars with neither purpose nor moral justification, wars that too often are not even declared by the Congress."
-- Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) (source)

"The Congress that voted overwhelmingly to allow the use of force in Iraq includes only one member who has a child in the enlisted ranks of the military—just a few more have children who are officers... A renewed draft will help bring a great appreciation of the consequences of decisions to go to war."
-- Representative Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and Korean Veteran (source)

"The draft is a monstrous violation of individual liberty, and even a good motive cannot make it otherwise. In a free society no one should be compelled to take up arms, or be forced to kill or risk being killed... But who can blame prospective volunteers from doubting that there is a threat from Iraq? The Bush administration has yet to make a persuasive argument to that effect."
-- Sheldon Richman, The Future of Freedom Foundation (source)

"The vast majority of current recruits in the all-volunteer military do so for economic reasons. The volunteer army has been called the poverty draft. The military provides food, shelter, clothing, medical care, insurance, and the promise of job training and educational benefits. With high unemployment in the ghettos and the social safety net in tatters, the military provides one of the few apparent options for the children of the poor. But volunteering for the military because of a lack of options is not a free choice."
-- David Chandler, Visalia Friends Meeting (Quaker.org) (source)

"[T]he ending of the draft and the institution of an all-volunteer Army combined with a Reagan-era military buildup has placed all recruiting eggs in the marketing basket... Do these ads promise more than the services deliver? Yes... according to a 1986 Wall Street Journal article, unemployment rates for veterans were higher than the norm, and studies showed that only a small number (12 percent for men and six percent for women) made any use of their military skills in civilian jobs."
-- Rev. Daniel A. Buford, Ecumenical Peace Institute (source)

Conscription "rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state—not for parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers—to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society. That assumption isn't a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea."
-- Ronald Reagan, former President (source)

[The Vietnam era draft was] "discriminatory, undemocratic and resulted in the war being fought by the poor man's son."
-- General William Westmoreland (source)

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."
- John F. Kennedy, former President (source)