Do I believe in a mandatory draft? Yes. It solves a lot of problems. It even inderectly works as a means of violent crime prevention. After all, when was the last time that a majority of violent crimes were perpetrated by soldiers? This seldom happens. And when virtually every male under 40 is a reservist, well, you do the math. A draft creates discipline. Teaches humility to all able bodied males. Drowns out a lot of "attitude" inherent in our current youth. But, and I stress but, it would only work if used in concert with a few other changes. The perfect system would consist of a mandatory draft which would require service for only a year. Then require a refresher for a few weeks every year for the next 20 years or so. There is a beauty to this system. Imagine the cocky corporate CEO having to go in and take orders from some janitor who is normally beneath him. Or maybe some actor running up a mountain on orders from his key grip. Again, this creates discipline, humility and a sense that one's wealth or stature means nothing when it comes to national defense. In a system such as this, we would have a far smaller number people who act as if they are above the law or above mere humans. If one can run, one serves. If one can't run or walk, he serves behind a desk. But here is where one of the other major changes comes in. None of these draftees could be used to further geo-political goals. They would be used for national defense only. Nothing else. Same as our militia was used for back in the time of our early history. Or basically following what George Washington intended when he read his farewell address. This means no police action. While there is an excuse for someone to not want to serve to go to Vietnam or Iraq, there is no excuse for someone not wanting to serve to protect our country from within our country. Has this been done succefully? Yes and very much so in the only true and direct democracy in the world. A country that has not been invaded in centuries despite housing what is now believed to be over 40% of the world's "declared" wealth. A very stable, wealthy and successful country in fact. But this would go against the core of post WW2 US foreign policy of foreign meddling. Keep one thing in mind though. In a fully direct democracy in which every able bodied male under 40 is a soldier, neutrality would be inevitable. It would be a virtual impossibility for there to be any other result. But even in our representative democracy where the voter has far less power, a nation of soldiers would still have far less tolerance for geo-political wars than we do today. Besides, I doubt that either Kerry, Gore or Bush would have sent their kids to Iraq. The best reading on this subject matter would be this study
www.constitution.org/mil/swiss_report.htm