You hear less about the draft nowadays because the liberal left -- the politicians who are responsible for most expansions of government power -- don't like the use of military force, at least when it's the American military doing the intervention. Liberals cannot in good conscience support a draft when they have so little use for the military. This is why so many liberals (and conservatives too) favor something called "national service." National service is a way to turn young people into servants of the state without even using the military.
I'd like to think it says something for the United States that it no longer has a military draft, and there's no indication that one is forthcoming. I'd like to think that it represents progress towards the expansion of individual rights. But then I look at all that Obama has done to expand government power, and all that George W. Bush did to expand government power before him, and I recognize there's no trend towards individual rights in the United States. What happened was that the military became more technological and high-tech, making untrained manpower less relevant than trained forces who are comfortable with the use of our advanced weaponry. It's politicians who want to impose "national service" -- draft or not -- on the population, because the vast majority of liberal and conservative politicians care first and foremost about the government ... not the people, and least of all the individual.
It's not possible to conceive of a free society in which there's a draft -- not now, not ever. Freedom is the most precious thing a human being can have, and because most individuals understand this, most will fight for it if the invaders are at their front door. It's governments who oppose freedom and it's governments who want to expand their own power.
The draft is a perfect way to do that. But in a technologically advanced society as the United States, government has found other ways to expand its coercive influence over the lives of people. If we continue our move towards soft fascism and socialism, who knows -- the draft may make a comeback.
http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/war-peace/draft/6356-the-draft-slavery-as-literal-as-it-comes.html
