McChrystal: Time to bring back the draft

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander of international forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the United States should bring back the draft if it ever goes to war again.

“I think we ought to have a draft. I think if a nation goes to war, it shouldn’t be solely be represented by a professional force, because it gets to be unrepresentative of the population,” McChrystal said at a late-night event June 29 at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival. “I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk. You make that decision and everybody has skin in the game.”

He argued that the burdens of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t been properly shared across the U.S. population, and emphasized that the U.S. military could train draftees so that there wouldn’t be a loss of effectiveness in the war effort.

“I’ve enjoyed the benefits of a professional service, but I think we’d be better if we actually went to a draft these days,” he said. “There would some loss of professionalism, but for the nation it would be a better course.”

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq placed unfair and extreme burdens on the professional military, especially reservists, and their families, McChrystal said.

“We’ve never done that in the United State before; we’ve never fought an extended war with an all- volunteer military. So what it means is you’ve got a very small population that you’re going to and you’re going to it over and over again,” he said. “Because it’s less than one percent of the population… people are very supportive but they don’t have the same connection to it.”

Reservists following multiple deployments have trouble maintaining careers and families and have a “frighteningly high” rate of suicide, he said. 

“The reserve structure is designed for major war, you fight and then you stop, but what we’ve done instead is gone back over and over to the same people,” he said. “We’re going to have to relook the whole model because I don’t think we can do this again.”

McChrystal was speaking at a panel focused on how to manage marriage in the military. He was joined by Annie, his wife of 35 years, and the discussion was moderated by CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux.

Multiple deployments often result in divorces and split families, he said.

“The marriages I see most strained are the senior NCOs and officers who have four or five tours… you’re apart so much that it’s hard to have a marriage if you’re not together at least a critical mass of time, and that’s tough,” McChrystal said.

Malveaux asked McChrystal how he has managed to get through 35 years of marriage.

“One day at a time,” he responded.