55
And no one could skip this draft, unlike
previous drafts, where through the practice of
hiring substitutes during the Civil War, or the
hiring of certain podiatrists during the Vietnam
War, the well-off adeptly avoided conscription.
This placed the burden of national defense on
those with the least resources. And when those
wars turned to quagmires, elites in this country—
whose children did not often fill the ranks—were
less invested in the outcome.
Which comes to a final, essential aspect of
the reverse- engineered draft: those whose fami-
lies fall into the top income tax bracket would be
the only ones eligible. These are the children of
the most influential in our country, those whose
financial success in business, or tech, or enter-
tainment have placed them in a position to bun-
dle political contributions among their friends,
or have a call returned by a Senator or member
of the House. If the college- admissions scandal
surrounding William Singer’s company the Key
is any indication, it shows that this is a demo-
graphic that does not sit idly by with regard to
their children’s well-being.
The military does—as the agitated colonel
pointed out—exist to fight and win our nation’s
wars. But it is also one of our great engines of
societal mobility. Those who enlist are taught a
trade, and if they earn an honorable discharge
they’re granted tuition for college under the GI
Bill. From the greatest generation to my own
millennial generation, the social result has been
transformative. And the military will continue to
attract the professionals who wish to serve out a
40-year career, as well as the ambitious citizens
who wish to pull themselves up by their boot-
straps with a four-year enlistment and the GI Bill.
Our military continues to be an engine of societal
mobility, but it also needs to return to being what
it once was, a societal leveler, in which men and
women of diverse backgrounds, at an impression-
able age, were forced together in the pursuit of a
mission larger than themselves.
Why send our sons and daughters to fight and
die in the name of unity? Couldn’t they sign up
for Habitat for Humanity? Yes, they could, and
opportunities to serve outside the military would
still be important. However, an argument for
mandatory national public service that excludes
military service forgets perhaps the most impor-
tant consequence of a draft, which is that with a
draft the barrier to entering new wars would be
significantly higher.
We were more than 10 years into the wars
before I ever heard anyone talk about the draft.
It was the summer of 2012, a weekday after-
noon in August, and I was in a motorcade es-
corting the body of Gunnery Sergeant Jonathan