February17, 2007:
Lebanon has joined the ever growing list of nations that have dropped
conscription. The law to abolish the draft was actually passed two years ago,
but did not go into effect until 24 months later. Lebanon, with high
unemployment, has not had much trouble recruiting all the troops it needed for
its 60,000 strong army. At the time conscription was voted out of existence,
only 35 percent of the troops were conscripts. Now none are.
Britain
started the "all volunteer" trend in the early 1960s, when it abolished
conscription. The U.S. followed a decade later, and then the Cold War ended in
1991. After that, most European nations were able to cut their armed forces
substantially. Realizing that Britain and the United States had demonstrably
better quality troops, largely because they had an all-volunteer force,
enthusiasm for conscription began to fade. The only thing that stops many
nations from going all-volunteer, is the added expense. You have to pay
volunteer troops competitive wages, compared to practically nothing for
conscripts.