Paramilitary: Meet the Muster

Interesting.

Paramilitary: Meet the Muster: "The IRR callup spotlights the problem that wars have become less manpower intensive over the last sixty years. World War II saw 16.1 million Americans serving (11.6 percent of the population.) Six million of those troops were volunteers, the rest were drafted (and another 6.4 million were drafted, but rejected, for physical, mental or other reasons.) During the 1950-53 Korean war, 5.7 million served (27 percent were draftees), while during the Vietnam war (1965-73), 8.7 million served (20 percent were draftees.) You can see where this is going. With the relatively large number of Americans willing to volunteer for military service, and wars requiring fewer troops, there's no need for draftees. But when there's an emergency, and a call for reviving the draft, a look at the IRR shows that there are plenty of trained and experienced former military personnel already available, if you can only find them. The annual muster is headed for becoming another aspect of American military life."