You are still right though, it would be the most economical system and better/ cheaper then using rogue mercs. But you have to take in to account the fact that in a draft system you end up with a lot of people unfit for service. Whether it’s due to Physical, psychological and/or Ideological reasons.
I mean would you feel confident fighting next to a pencil necked anxiety ridden pacifist? Who is essentially unfit for combat yet made it past the line because they had nothing obviously wrong with them? Would you want a guy like that watching your back?
The draft system was done away with in many countries because it forced people who didn’t wan to fight to go to war. Not only that but it forced those that shouldn’t be fighting in to service.
Draft systems should only really be initiated in times of REAL defence, REAL wars. Not to aid in wars in the name of special interests.

Also in a society that values it’s freedom I do not think conscription (it’s technically what a draft is) will go down well.

I strongly disagree with your hypothesis that we should “use indirect methods and make sure the regimes we back are serious about protecting people, not oppressing them.”

Your reasoning is fatally flawed for at least two serious reasons:

(1) Military weakness invites military disaster. By relying on other nations, we weaken our own security.

(2) You are making exactly the same mistake as current US foreign policy — “make sure the regimes we back are serious about protecting people, not oppressing them” —
literally means we are dictating terms to a sovereign nation as to how it should handle its intenal policies.

What we need is to get rid of the politically crippled and corrupt military we have now, by which I mean get rid of all the civilian contractors and remploy the draft (as I stated above).

Doing this alone would maximize our miliary expenditures, while minimizing the cost.

You may not like it, but I challenge anyone to come up with a better, quicker and more economical solution.

And never mind sending me comments that I am recommending what I would not do myself. I am a Vietnam War veteran and have “been there, done that”.

Obsess over North Korea, while ignoring that peace in the Middle East goes through Israel. All too often the ‘friends’ we support are stabbing American interests in the back.

America cannot impose their will on others, and too often fails to understand the reason for their anger.

We have very serious domestic problems, not the least of which is a 1960′s mindset which does not acknowledge the significant changes in the country. In general, Washington is concerned about power and dominance, not about freedom, development and respect. This applies domestically as well as internationally.

Until we reform our corrupt political and judicial systems we have no chance of domestic tranquility, let alone consensus. Time to outlaw congressional districts that do not meet strict mathematical standards. No more gerrymandering! Give us a much, much larger House with Representatives that do not behave as if they are foreigners to their own purported “constituents”. We need to eliminate judgeships as untouchable Princes of the State. No more lifetime tenure. We need more citizen initiatives permitted at every level of Government.

When we have agreement at home, then we can decide policy abroad. Meanwhile we might as well have a dictatorship.

This country has more to do than to deny the vote to Muslims. There are just a few Americans of such type, but they run the country like their personal medieval barony. The mechanisms they are using must be extracted like a rotten tooth.

Sometimes, you don’t get to choose who your friends are. But sometimes, you can tell your friends, “stop arresting everyone who speaks bad about you, murdering political opponents, etc, or we’ll happily let the communists/terrorists/whatever” stomp you into the dirt. We should not become so desperate for allies that we tolerate people who are just as bad as the flavor of the week villain. There’s a price to be paid for that in the long run. Governments change hands, but people are slow to forget.

Every single dollar that is spent on military contractors, is a dollar of total waste that can be eliminated by drafting our young people again.

Part of this would be to go back to relying on a system of reserve troops (e.g. National Guard) instead of maintaining a large peacetime military.

That would result in a much smaller military, with the ability to call up fully-trained troops as needed.

The US completely destroyed this concept by going to an “all volunteer” army.

That has been an unmitigated disaster for this country, and it needs to be changed immediately.