Retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Leonard argued during a Dole Institute of Politics forum that it would be a mistake to resume national conscription for military service. He was challenged by advocates of resuming the draft after a 50-year absence in the United States. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Dole Institute video)
LAWRENCE — Retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Leonard opposes revival of the draft because the nation didn’t face an existential threat warranting compulsory service and evidence showed that forcing people into uniform created disciplinary problems and weakened overall development of quality warfighters.
Leonard, who served 28 years in the Army before joining the University of Kansas business school faculty, said during a forum at Dole Institute of Politics that soft U.S. recruiting in 2022 and 2023 didn’t warrant abandonment of the all-volunteer service.
He said the Department of Defense had yet to fully tap into recruiting potential among Generation Z members born between 1997 and 2012. The flawed Selective Service registration system would have to be fundamentally overhauled by Congress to begin drafting men and women into the armed forces, he said.
He said the draft was an ongoing national-security necessity for countries such as Israel or South Korea because they faced profound threats. The argument cannot be made that the United States was in that posture, he said.
“You want people who want to be there, obviously,” Leonard said. “You have people who don’t look at the potential of service, but at the potential of getting out. You don’t really develop that deep bench of skill sets that you hope you have because you don’t have the people long enough. Quality is actually reduced. If you have a lot of people who aren’t quality, then you actually exacerbate the threat to your own national security.”
William Raymond, a retired Army colonel and an assistant professor at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, said he didn’t buy it.
He said the draft served the country’s personnel interests in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and through a 27-year period of the Cold War that included combat in Korea and Vietnam. The U.S. draft ending in 1973.
Raymond said reintroduction of the draft would be a valuable tool in terms of protecting U.S. security interests and building a workforce capable of narrowing racial and class divisions. The voluntary system has left only 7.3% of the population with some form of military experience, he said.
He said lack of a draft meant the United States could struggle to sustain large-scale, all-in combat operations. While the United States has 2 million personnel in uniform, the attrition rate during the war between Ukraine and Russia showed how quickly force strength could be compromised. More than 1 million have been killed or wounded since Russia invaded Ukraine, he said.
“The all-volunteer force is close to breaking now,” Raymond said. “And, when it does break, wouldn’t it be better if we had a draft in place? The United States needs a draft now so we can not only win the first battle with what we have, but also win the larger war with the force that we currently do not have.”
Retired Army Col. Kevin Benson, who served on active duty for 30 years, offered a blueprint for a draft that might avoid inequities that permeated drafts from the Civil War to Vietnam. He proposed all men and women register with Selective Service at 18 and undergo medical, physical and psychological evaluation. All would enter basic military training, but only selected individuals would proceed to advance training in military specialties.
“This would develop in our country a depth of minimally trained people who could be called upon when needed,” said Benson, the former director of advanced military studies at Leavenworth’s Command and General Staff College. “For most people, registration and basic training would fulfill the obligations of national service and being a citizen.”
He said a larger reserve pool of individuals with a taste of the military experience would serve as a deterrent against countries weighing armed conflict.
“Being ready is part of deterrence,” Benson said. “We may not be invested in war, but war may be invested in us.”
Debra Sheffer, a professor of Park University in Missouri and recipient of a doctorate in military history at KU, said during the debate that military personnel shortages were as old as warfare. Distortion of drafts by wealthy Americans had repeatedly undermined integrity of the drafts, she said.
Sheffer said the historical record of drafts in the United States bore witness to why it was “inefficient, costly, very unpopular” and didn’t always succeed in delivering capable recruits. She said a modern draft would inevitably claw into the military’s workforce development program the 70% of the population incapable of passing basic tests given enlistees.
During the Dole Institute debate, attorneys representing both sides of the issue questioned the four witnesses as if they were in a court of law.
California attorney Ed Duckers, who earned a bachelor’s degree at KU, sought to advance the view that a draft would be improper, especially during peacetime.
He said individuals conscripted into the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force, and their families, would face consequences of a “repressive tax” not shouldered by the rest of the nation. He said conscripts would be working for less than their market value.
“If we have a draft, it’s not going to be any more equitable and fair than its ever been,” Duckers said. “It is immoral to conscript men in a free society. The economic cost of conscription, especially on the middle and lower classes, is greater than the benefit.”
Pedro Irigonegaray, a Kansas attorney, said justification for a draft could be found in the meaning behind the 29-foot stained glass U.S. flag on the south facade of the institute named for former U.S. Sen. Robert Dole. The Russell native was profoundly injured in Italy during World War II.
The reasoning for a draft also was contained in the pair of steel beams from the World Trade Center that served as book ends for the stained glass, he said.
“It is not a matter of anything other than the safety of our republic,” he said. “No matter how we sugarcoat it, less than 1% of our fellow citizens are carrying that burden. Fairness and equity demand that we share in the responsibility for the future of our nation, our safety and the safety of our world.”
by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
November 15, 2024
by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
November 15, 2024
LAWRENCE — Retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Leonard opposes revival of the draft because the nation didn’t face an existential threat warranting compulsory service and evidence showed that forcing people into uniform created disciplinary problems and weakened overall development of quality warfighters.
Leonard, who served 28 years in the Army before joining the University of Kansas business school faculty, said during a forum at Dole Institute of Politics that soft U.S. recruiting in 2022 and 2023 didn’t warrant abandonment of the all-volunteer service.
He said the Department of Defense had yet to fully tap into recruiting potential among Generation Z members born between 1997 and 2012. The flawed Selective Service registration system would have to be fundamentally overhauled by Congress to begin drafting men and women into the armed forces, he said.
He said the draft was an ongoing national-security necessity for countries such as Israel or South Korea because they faced profound threats. The argument cannot be made that the United States was in that posture, he said.
“You want people who want to be there, obviously,” Leonard said. “You have people who don’t look at the potential of service, but at the potential of getting out. You don’t really develop that deep bench of skill sets that you hope you have because you don’t have the people long enough. Quality is actually reduced. If you have a lot of people who aren’t quality, then you actually exacerbate the threat to your own national security.”
William Raymond, a retired Army colonel and an assistant professor at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, said he didn’t buy it.
He said the draft served the country’s personnel interests in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and through a 27-year period of the Cold War that included combat in Korea and Vietnam. The U.S. draft ending in 1973.
Raymond said reintroduction of the draft would be a valuable tool in terms of protecting U.S. security interests and building a workforce capable of narrowing racial and class divisions. The voluntary system has left only 7.3% of the population with some form of military experience, he said.
He said lack of a draft meant the United States could struggle to sustain large-scale, all-in combat operations. While the United States has 2 million personnel in uniform, the attrition rate during the war between Ukraine and Russia showed how quickly force strength could be compromised. More than 1 million have been killed or wounded since Russia invaded Ukraine, he said.
“The all-volunteer force is close to breaking now,” Raymond said. “And, when it does break, wouldn’t it be better if we had a draft in place? The United States needs a draft now so we can not only win the first battle with what we have, but also win the larger war with the force that we currently do not have.”
Retired Army Col. Kevin Benson, who served on active duty for 30 years, offered a blueprint for a draft that might avoid inequities that permeated drafts from the Civil War to Vietnam. He proposed all men and women register with Selective Service at 18 and undergo medical, physical and psychological evaluation. All would enter basic military training, but only selected individuals would proceed to advance training in military specialties.
“This would develop in our country a depth of minimally trained people who could be called upon when needed,” said Benson, the former director of advanced military studies at Leavenworth’s Command and General Staff College. “For most people, registration and basic training would fulfill the obligations of national service and being a citizen.”
He said a larger reserve pool of individuals with a taste of the military experience would serve as a deterrent against countries weighing armed conflict.
“Being ready is part of deterrence,” Benson said. “We may not be invested in war, but war may be invested in us.”
Debra Sheffer, a professor of Park University in Missouri and recipient of a doctorate in military history at KU, said during the debate that military personnel shortages were as old as warfare. Distortion of drafts by wealthy Americans had repeatedly undermined integrity of the drafts, she said.
Sheffer said the historical record of drafts in the United States bore witness to why it was “inefficient, costly, very unpopular” and didn’t always succeed in delivering capable recruits. She said a modern draft would inevitably claw into the military’s workforce development program the 70% of the population incapable of passing basic tests given enlistees.
During the Dole Institute debate, attorneys representing both sides of the issue questioned the four witnesses as if they were in a court of law.
California attorney Ed Duckers, who earned a bachelor’s degree at KU, sought to advance the view that a draft would be improper, especially during peacetime.
He said individuals conscripted into the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force, and their families, would face consequences of a “repressive tax” not shouldered by the rest of the nation. He said conscripts would be working for less than their market value.
“If we have a draft, it’s not going to be any more equitable and fair than its ever been,” Duckers said. “It is immoral to conscript men in a free society. The economic cost of conscription, especially on the middle and lower classes, is greater than the benefit.”
Pedro Irigonegaray, a Kansas attorney, said justification for a draft could be found in the meaning behind the 29-foot stained glass U.S. flag on the south facade of the institute named for former U.S. Sen. Robert Dole. The Russell native was profoundly injured in Italy during World War II.
The reasoning for a draft also was contained in the pair of steel beams from the World Trade Center that served as book ends for the stained glass, he said.
“It is not a matter of anything other than the safety of our republic,” he said. “No matter how we sugarcoat it, less than 1% of our fellow citizens are carrying that burden. Fairness and equity demand that we share in the responsibility for the future of our nation, our safety and the safety of our world.”
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Tim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 38 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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Kansas Reflector is a nonprofit news operation providing in-depth reporting, diverse opinions and daily coverage of state government and politics. This public service is free to readers and other news outlets.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. (See full republishing guidelines.)
© Kansas Reflector, 2025
Retired U.S. Army colonels clash in debate about potential reboot of military draft – Kansas Reflector
