Following Vietnam, the U.S. military draft ended, Jan. 27, 1973; as the Vietnam War drew to a close, the Selective Service announced no further draft calls. Since then, no American has been obligated to join up, and few do.
America saw its future devastated by the loss of its children and by America’s role in Vietnam. Some Americans fought the draft and an immoral war. But no Americans escaped the visceral knowledge that people were dying because America persisted in an enormous error.
Today: “Less than 0.5 percent of the population serves in the armed forces, compared with more than 12 percent during World War II. Even fewer of the privileged and powerful shoulder arms. In 1975, 70 percent of members of Congress had some military service; today, just 20 percent do, and only a handful of their children are in uniform.”
Today, wars few see and fewer feel, but wars all paid for by Americans, leaving fewer resources for education, health care, infrastructure, and contributing to the consequent decline of American’s global competitiveness.
Wars few see and fewer feel, because, unlike Vietnam, few know personally the American soldiers on the ground; because other wars are outsourced (using American “expertise”); others, fought by American-paid mercenaries
It wont “Make America Great Again”.
SOURCES:
http://www.politico.com/story/2012/01/us-military-draft-ends-jan-27-1973-072085
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/opinion/americans-and-their-military-drifting-apart.html