By Lt. Col. Karen McKay, USA ret
When Richard Nixon ended the draft in January 1973, America lost something vital to its soul.
The quality of our military has not suffered. We have a splendid volunteer force defending our country and freedom right now. It’s the best educated, best trained, and best equipped force we have ever had.
They are not the problem. The problem is that they represent only a very small fraction of America. For the first time in our history, the overwhelming majority of American families not only do not have a member in service, but they also don’t even know any family that does.
1973 was not the first time conscription was canceled.
For the record, there was no national conscription before the Civil War…not for want of trying. General George Washington was frustrated with the unsoldierly quality of state militias during the Revolutionary War, and as president tried to register all males for military service. Congress blocked him.
Conscription has been on-again-off-again our entire history to this day. So, Nixon’s draft cancellation cannot really be blamed for the decay of American culture. The problem was that our culture was already turning into a fetid sea, and the draft was a lifeboat.
Besides shared contribution, experience and sacrifice, what we lost by ending the draft was character.
Our country is in crisis, and most of our nation’s problems can be traced to the lack of character attributes that should be taught by mothers and fathers, and which are certainly instilled through military service:
- self-discipline,
- personal accountability,
- responsibility,
- self-reliance,
- selflessness,
- integrity,
- respect, and
- patriotism.
Perhaps the greatest of these is discipline, from which all else must surely flow. Ask a strapping young man knocking about in life trying to find himself today, “Have you considered the military?” “Oh, no!” is a common response, “I couldn’t stand all that discipline.” That is sad, and a sad commentary on what we have allowed to happen to our great country.
“Country” is not synonymous with “nation.” Right now, the United States is Balkanizing itself, and worse, sinking into tribalism.
Common values build a nation. The Kurds are a nation who have never had a country. The Jews are a nation that only recovered their country after 2000 years of exile, but half of whom are still spread around the world. The nationhood of both derives from shared values and history—not from politics, race, or regionalism. Of course, it’s more complex, but shared values are the core of nationhood. The United States of America has lost that. The draft could bring it back.
“The Marine Corps builds men.” And women. So do the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Space Force. More than instilling character, the military exposes young people to milieus that he or she might never otherwise encounter.
To use the current politically correct term “diversity:” the military is comprised of every race, religion, culture, ethnicity, economic class, education and experience that make up this great country coming together and working together on a level playing field. And building a national common denominator of shared experience and, yes, character traits.
Bottom line, it is the military strength of our country that keeps us free, and that is a personal responsibility.
Writing of “the necessity of obliging every citizen to be a soldier,” Thomas Jefferson said in a letter to James Monroe in 1813, “We must train…our citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education. We can never be safe until this is done.”
Restoring universal service would also put us on the road to restoring the nobility of character that Alexis de Tocqueville so admired in Americans in 1831.
Mandatory non-military community service, as suggested by some, is a nice idea, but it is no substitute for Jefferson’s vision.
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Karen McKay is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. She is a Foreign Area Operations Officer (Middle East/SW Asia), and Airborne, Civil Affairs, and Psyops qualified. Her PhD dissertation at Hebrew University in Jerusalem was on the failure of Allied air forces to bomb Auschwitz and the rail lines transporting Jews to death camps. She was the Executive Director of the Committee for Free Afghanistan, and president of Americans for Freedom, an NGO supporting the Contras, especially on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua.
First published on Real Clear Defense
IMAGE: Army Strong–Army 1st Lt. Mark Nylund lifts an Atlas stone in Vilseck, Germany, March 20, 2026. The training focused on warfighting readiness by preparing soldiers for the grueling, combat-focused challenges of the Best Ranger Competition.
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