Sen. Ernest Hollings said Monday a return of military conscription is necessary to strengthen a military spread thin by its global duties and would show that the people stand behind any decision by the president to make war.
“It’s not the Army going to war. It’s the country going to war,” Hollings, D-S.C., said at a news conference with Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., Congress’ most vocal supporter of a return of the draft.
What sort of mind equates compulsion with consensus?
Later. David Henderson relays this exchange, from the end of the previous draft:
In his testimony before the commission, [William] Westmoreland said he did not want to command an army of mercenaries. [Milton] Friedman interrupted, “General, would you rather command an army of slaves?” Mr. Westmoreland replied, “I don’t like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves.” Mr. Friedman then retorted, “I don’t like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general; we are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher.”