Last week in a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., advocated re-instituting the draft. "Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" he asked. The answer is simple: The costs of a draft far outweigh the benefits.

There's a very simple point to be made regarding conscription: People who want to be soldiers make better soldiers than those who don't. It is no surprise that the military leadership prefers an all-volunteer force. According to the Department of Defense, since the advent of the all-volunteer force the number of "high-quality" recruits has leaped 50 percent.

The military can be selective in choosing the best force for its needs. If a recruit is not good enough, he is not selected. If a soldier does not perform his duty, he is discharged. A conscripted force does not have that luxury. It takes what it can get. You can't discharge soldiers who don't want to be there anyway. It just doesn't work.

Many costs of a draft are obvious, but many are unseen. There are "the costs of the conscription apparatus, of avoidance activities, of economic dislocations," writes Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute. "Look at the Vietnam War, when we saw the creation of an entire industry for avoiding conscription."

What's the best way to turn Iraq into Vietnam? Draft young men and force them to go there. Hagel would then likely realize an additional cost of the draft - his job.

The draft would not allocate young people's resources most effectively. People gravitate toward careers they enjoy and they are talented in. Young students who excel in science go on to become doctors and cancer researchers; those with a knack for technology design computer programs. People who make good soldiers join the military. Each, in their own way, makes our lives better and more enjoyable. It's just plain stupid to put cancer researchers in tanks, and have a young Bill Gates fly a fighter plane, while talented would-be soldiers sit home undrafted.

Hagel and his colleagues should seriously consider whether they want to rob Americans of their freedom to promote an untenable foreign policy. The costs of the draft are just too high. Our nation was founded by men who volunteered to fight for freedom, not to take freedom away from future generations. The draft is simply un-American.

Christopher Schrimpf of Western Hills is a student at Cornell University. He is an intern at a think tank in Washington, D.C.

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