MAGA ramps up talk of 'reinstating a military draft'

During the Vietnam War on January 27, 1973, President Richard Nixon issued an executive order calling for an end to the military draft in the United States. The Vietnam War continued until 1975, but Nixon's order marked the beginning of a transition to an all-volunteer military. Then, in 1980, during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, President Jimmy Carter reinstated draft registration — making it mandatory for males in the U.S. to register for the draft when they reached adulthood.

The draft itself, however, hasn't existed in the U.S. since the 1970s. But in an article published on March 16, Salon's Chauncey DeVega warns that with the U.S. now at war with Iran, a growing number of MAGA Republicans are talking about bringing back the draft.

"As President Trump's war against Iran spirals out of control," DeVega warns, "there is a growing concern he will order a ground invasion to remove the country's leaders and take control of its vast supplies of oil. The consensus among military and foreign policy experts is that such a move would be disastrous — and that its failure could be catastrophic enough to permanently damage America's standing as a superpower. But horrible outcomes have, at least to this point, not stopped Trump and his enablers from making irresponsible and dangerous decisions…. On March 8, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt a direct question. Would Trump consider ground forces or reinstating the draft to fight Iran?"

DeVega continues, "'I know a lot of politicians like to do that quickly,' she replied, 'but the president, as commander-in-chief, wants to continue to assess the success of this military operation. It's not part of the current plan right now, but the president, again, wisely keeps his options on the table.'"

DeVega notes that "reinstating a military draft" in the U.S. "would face enormous practical and political obstacles."

"The draft has not been part of American culture for 50 years, and Congress would need to update the Military Selective Service Act," DeVega explains. "Since the Trump Administration has yet to make a coherent case for why this war is necessary, many Americans would likely simply refuse to comply…. As a political matter, a draft for an already-unpopular war would likely leave Americans outraged and make landslide victories by Democrats over Republicans in the midterms and beyond a near certainty. Such a move could even cause a generational political realignment away from Trumpism and the GOP."

According to Steven Cash, director of the group Steady State, the Trump Administration would have a lot of explaining to if it seriously moved forward with an effort to bring back the draft.

Cash told Salon, "Absent a dramatic change in the nature of the conflict, the political system would struggle to justify a draft to the American public — and this is particularly true against a background of conflicting, and in some cases, patently false, reasons offered so far for a surprise attack on Iran. A draft becomes politically plausible only when the nation believes it cannot defend itself without it. At that point, the question would no longer be political convenience, but national survival."