Jeffrey A. Tucker, writing for LewRockwell.com, on The Myth of the Voluntary Military:
When you see the pictures of American troops fighting their way through sand storms, in a strange land with strange people, seeking to overturn a government and transform a society that posed no credible threat to the US, being shot at by average Iraqis who are clearly motivated only by the desire to expel the invader, it is not hard to imagine that US troops are wondering how it all came to this.
The British defense secretary, Geoff Hoon, claims that the coalition armed forces are made up of "men and women who made a free choice to serve their country," whereas Iraqi forces "are motivated either by fear or by hatred." It's hard to say what motivates Iraqi forces (perhaps the desire to repel invasion?) but what he says about coalition troops is simply not true.
The men and women now fighting initially agreed to be in the employ of the military. The US is not yet conscripting people. And yet how many of these would leave Iraq if they could? What if Donald Rumsfeld announced that anyone now fighting in Iraq is free to leave without penalty? What would become of the US armed forces now attempting to bring about unconditional surrender in Iraq?
That's an interesting question. My own experience tells me that we'd have very few troops at our disposal if they were allowed to quit at will. The usual chickenhawk squawking about "volunteers" and "that's what they signed up for" is really a bunch of bullshit, spewed by cowards unwilling to serve themselves. Given the opportunity to do so legally and without the threat of legal action by their command, tens of thousands of men and women would sever their contracts, rather than continue to fight this unnecessary elective war.
There would be no need for UCMJ prohibitions against desertion if the delusionary neoconservative and liberventionist rantings about the motivations of those in uniform were actually true. For the record, there is a big difference between enlisting to protect your nation, and being misued by an Administration bent on grand designs of regional nation-building and willing to tell any tale to sway public opinion toward that end. To be sure, quite a large number of those in uniform support this war. However, given the opportunity to do so legally and without recourse, many of even the most interventionist minded, big government loving military men and women would get out in a second. As is, DoD will be facing a serious problem in the NCO and SNCO ranks over the next decade as experienced troops opt to allow their contracts to expire, rather than re-enlist to participate in the possible invasions of Iran, Syria or North Korea and repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Read the rest here.