Vietnam taught politicians the PR challenges of holding a fine war with a draft in place: All of a sudden, everyone and his brother had some real skin in the game, with so broad a population base up for grabs as cannon fodder.
Today, politicians think nothing of narrowing their gun sights, and sharpening the burden to a fine point -- one supported by very few backs. With a more-or-less volunteer force, you just demand the same small group returns to the battlefield over and over and over -- while promising to look into the puzzling reasons soldier suicides have skyrocketed.
Smaller pools of people are easier to shout commands down to, plus, they create much lighter blowback coming back upstream to the top: in terms of war, a win-win.
This is precisely the point, for politicians: You don't want the people getting a say in the decision, gumming up the works -- and you surely don't need a million parents shredding the seat of your pants over their Johnnies and Janies.
But, in theory, the draft accomplished what everyone in America says they've always wanted for Christmas: a level playing field. This meant anyone could be scooped up for military service and find themselves in the midst of a shooting war, suddenly sharing the burden of the nation.
On Monday, August 6, 1945, after six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities,...
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