henry (11/10/82)
It is worth noting that the Canadian Army in World War II was almost entirely volunteers. Men *were* drafted into the Home Guard, and into non-military national service, to free up volunteers. But draftees were sent into the Army proper only during one brief interval when the manpower shortage was at its worst -- and there was a major political uproar as a result. I am told that, as a percentage of the nation's population, the Canadian Army was actually larger than the US Army. And there weren't many complaints about the quality of Canadian troops. All of which makes me a bit skeptical about claims that the draft is an obvious necessity in wartime, much less in peacetime.