I think you could argue the draft forced the war to be real for more families (and the expansion of TV), intensifying the resistance to it. Quick googling says almost 10% of the population served in Vietnam in some capacity. Less than 1% served in the War on Terror.

This was part of Charles Rangel's (D) reasoning to propose bringing back the draft. [1]

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_National_Service_Act

> I think you could argue the draft forced the war to be real for more families (and the expansion of TV), intensifying the resistance to it.

Yeah, it did, all the young men of draft age had to live knowing that they might get drafted and be forced to fight and die. Even if they were never called, or in retrospect were too old at the time.

We seem to have largely forgotten that now, along with the "Vietnam Syndrome" that the US military "suffered" through until we were successful in applying military force in 1991 with the Gulf War.

I almost hope they're successful in doing this. We've also lost the focus on clearly defined objectives for war.

It seems like we need a horrible mess to learn all the hard lessons all over again.

That argument falls flat, when considering regions like the Ukraine that are fighting for survival today.

And when contrasting with earlier times like the Civil War, where a draft was unpopular: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrollment_Act