Bring Back The Draft?

(CBS)  The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.

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There have been stories recently about the problem the Pentagon is having recruiting enough soldiers to do the fighting that we're committed to do in Iraq.

In an attempt to get the soldiers they need, recruiters have reduced the standards for getting into the Army or Navy.

They have reduced the educational standards, for example, so that they're getting more soldiers who didn't go to high school, let alone graduate from high school.

Recruiters are granting thousands of what they call "moral waivers". A "moral waiver" it turns out means they'll take someone who has committed a crime or even someone who has been in prison. Last year, a total of 8,129 "moral waivers" were given to men who volunteered for the Army.

Are these the people we want representing us? As American soldiers, they're going to give the people they meet around the world the impression that they are what all Americans are like and if they have been taken from the bottom of the barrel, they are not what we're all like.

In August of 1941, I had just finished my junior year in college when I was drafted into the Army. Hundreds of my classmates were drafted at the same time.

I hated everything about Army life. I hated the Field Artillery regiment I was assigned to. Most of the guys in it were high school dropouts and the Army wasn't using the term "moral waiver," yet but a lot of them would have needed it.

They had joined before the draft so they had already been promoted to being corporals or sergeants and they were in charge of the rest of us.

In 1942 we were at war with Germany and it wasn't long before drafted college students and high school graduates dominated our military. It changed the United States Army for the better and in two years made it the best fighting force there has ever been. The Army and Navy were no longer made up of losers.

Now comes the part of this I never thought I'd hear myself say: Whenever we, as a nation, decide to fight a war – in Iraq or anywhere else – it should be fought by average Americans who are drafted.
Written By Andy Rooney

[wolfmann4u-2009]

the draft was the best thing that ever happened to me. bring it back

[FlyingTiger2]

MY MOM WORE ARMY BOOTS IN 1943, A WAC ASSIGNED TO LONG BEACH SUPPLY.
SHE COULD HAVE BEEN SENT ANYWHERE WHEN, SHE VOLENTEERED.
BEFORE HER ALZHEIMERS, HER OPPINION ON THE DRAFT WAS SIMPLE.
"GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FOR THE GANDER".
SHE WAS A FARMERS DAUGHTER FROM NEBRASKA.
BORN IN 1921.
SHE HAD OPPINIONS ABOUT BANKERS AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
I'M VERY PROUD OF HER AND LUCKY TO HAVE A MOTHER WITH GRIT.
I STILL SEE TO HER CARE.
EVERYONE STILL HAS A RIGTH TO THEIR OPPINION. SHE CARED.

[monique82us]

Andy Roodney sounds like a jugdmental old fool. How dare he call someone a loser because they made bad choices. Just because someone commited a crime or was in prison does not make them a bad person or a loser. There are so many educated people, people who come from good families and backgrounds who are awful and deserve to be in prison. Roodney worries about what he consider "losers" representing America while on their tour, what about the politicians who have no regard for life that represent America? I don't support the war and I definitely don't support a draft. I've read a few articles about people promoting the draft and saying if Americans want to enjoy the benefits of being an American they should have to serve in the Army or Navy. I thought America was suppose to be the land of the free, were your dreams came true. How is it the land of the free if your being forced to join the Army against you will? How will dreams come true if your forced to join the Army or Navy and your life is cut short? I know everyone in the Army and Navy don't die but enough do and who wants to be one of those unfortunate ones who wont be able to enjoy the rest of their lives? No I think starting a draft is wrong everyone is not meant to serve in the Army or Navy. Not everyone wants to be forced to take someones life. If you (that goes for anyone young or old, male or female) want to start drafting again then you need to join the Army or Navy and stop trying to force you beliefs on the rest of us. I know many people get offended when someone says the death of a soldier is a waste of life, but it is the waste of a future and to me that is much worse than someone using a distasteful word. I don't agree with the draft I have only one brother and I want him in my life for as long as possible.

[thelableFELON]

While I agree with you about Roodney, I have to slightly disagree with your argument about being forced to serve. As far as I am aware, there is no draft and therefore no-one is being "forced " to serve. However, in the event that a draft does occur, I would be in full support of it and I will tell you why but first let me lay down a stipulation that I believe should be a draft policy. Individuals should be drafted or granted a moral waiver if they are otherwise not permitted to join. I'm not speaking for the mentally insane - or the criminally insane for that matter; I am speaking of course for individuals who share my situation. I am a proud owner of the classic "guilty by association" label. Details of the crime is a different story which I would be glad to explain upon request. Anyway...I have 7 felonies on my record and currently on probation. Without a moral waiver the Army will not touch me. Therein lies my disagreement. My life as I know it is ruined especially in this particular time of the century which finds us in a recession. If you are in the "lower" class(yes there does exist a lower class. Try looking in the gutter), It is quite IMPOSSIBLE to find an employer who doesn't get a chill up his back when reading your so called "rap-sheet". I have found through the past 6 years, and am totally convinced that the only thing that will "save my life" as it were is to join the Army, but we all know how that will turn out right? If there were a draft however which permitted people such as me to join and fight (and I assure you I have no second guessings)then I will have gained a bit of honor with myself, my family, the country and my community (which is, for lack of a better word, still frowning upon me). My point being, and no disrespect because I do understand your feelings on the matter, Honor and Respect is what this country was founded upon; it is what breeds freedom. No you shouldn't be made to serve but you should at least consider it for all of us who would otherwise jump to it if they had the green light to do so.

[Dannyboy8155]

I 100% agree. People don't really look at this from the right perspective, but you are definitely on the right track. It's about civic virtue. If We the People have a dispute, we should go solve it. Having an entire standing army of professionals creates moral hazards of all kinds. There should be a small full time core of professionals, and there should be massive drafts if we REALLY have to fight a war. That's the thing, if we have the draft.. we wouldn't go to war so frivolously.

[Portfound]

Dear Andy,
I was half way through a six year tour of the Navy at the time the draft was discontinued in 1973. We should never have eliminated it. But since we have, I feel that any time more than 20,000 troops are sent to do battle, the draft should automatically kick in. It would stop a lot of the chicken hawk ******** that permeates our Nation and our Capital. I believe the major contributor to the ending of the Vietnam conflict was the lottery draft instituted in 1969. It took away the draft board kickbacks for getting the little Dick or Rush a deferment. When the number came up, he went. It pissed a lot of the Limbaugh type?s off and only then was a demand for an end to a war forced into the mainstream.
So, let the lottery draft begin again!
Leroy Scharfenberg in Fayetteville, AR

[karjens39]

I share the posters comments about the disgusting comments made by Rooney. (It's funny a few years ago people said Bush was trying to bring back the draft and pitched a fit. Even though it was a Democratic Senator that brought it up). At any rate, while Rooney's comments are disgusting I find the comments about "wasted lives" equally as distasteful. No soldier who dies in service to their country is wasted. So to those who say they died for nothing are no better than Rooney.

[msgmorris]

Mr. Rooney,
You should be glad a whole bunch of folks took to the Army better than you did or we would have lost the freakin' war!
Just because you were unsuited for military service doesn't make every one who is a loser.
I have 2 sons in the Army; they could have done ANYTHING with their lives, including writing effete commentary for TV. But instead, they chose to serve their country in its time of need. They are professionals doing a dangerous job. They do not need to be hindered by dumbasses like you were when you were in the Army. We've got plenty of people who can write sentences; we need trigger pullers who won't crack up when it gets hot.
Retire and get out of the way.

[deadalphas]

One of the last things I worry about is being killed by a Muslim terrorist, and it's not because our military is doing such a great job of keeping them away.

On September 11, 2001 about 3,000 Americans were murdered by Muslim terrorists. In that same year, and every other year, between 5 and 6 times that many Americans were murdered by other Americans.

[charles1456]

Well I'm guess I'm just one of the 'dumb' ones.
I joined after I graduated from college. I was accepted to law school but was fascinated w/ the military. So I joined. I didn't know what to expect but the military we have now is far better than what it was during Vietnam. I can't understand how an older journalist who certainly had to be familiar w/ all the problems the draft created during Vietnam (drug abuse, low moral, discipline problems) thinks that it would just a *dandy* idea to bring it back.
Maybe it's you sir, who needs an education. Why is it journalists and those w/ advanced degrees become so clueless about history?

[ns27mm6md4]

Please do not promote the draft! Let's try to figure out a way to get out of this terrible war and not waste more of our young people lives, drafted or not!

And I cannot believe you think you are so much better than the other brave men that fought in World War II just because you were enrolled in college! How arrogant of you. My father fought proudly and bravely in that war. He did drop out of high school to join. BUT HE IS BY NO MEANS A LOSER!!! Thank God he came home safely. He is a good and intelligent man that worked very hard the rest of his life to raise his family. Please think before you speak.