Lex Anteinternet: Odd headline: Mike Coffman, Jared Polis want to end the military draft

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Odd headline: Mike Coffman, Jared Polis want to end the military draft

From the Denver Post.

Polis is a Colorado Congressman who is sponsoring a bill in Congress with others. The oddity of the headline is the assertion that it seeks "to end the military draft".

The US hasn't drafted anyone since 1973.

What the bill really proposes to do is to end the Selective Service System, which cost the US taxpayer $23,000,000 per year.

Abolishing it makes sense as the US isn't going to be drafting anyone and, based on past experience, it is capable of creating a conscription service pretty rapidly. It did it in the low tech age of the Civil War, then again during World War One, then again, starting in 1940, for World War Two, and then again after World War Two for the Cold War. If we had another big crisis like that we could get it done.

But we don't need it for the wars we're fighting now and we know that.

No comments:

Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

We hope you'll feel moved to comment as well. While we moderate every comment, so as to weed out Spam, we greatly appreciate the comments where they are offered, and hope to see more.

Thank you for stopping in!