[MitchellC]

But one thing that makes it harder to go to war is to have a draft, because when you have a draft, then everybody's got a stake in it, and the costs of war are brought home much more vividly and vigorously to the American people.

I think he has it backwards. A draft probably won't make it substantially harder to go into war, but once we are at war, it will be used politically to bring our involvement in the war to a disastrous, unnecessary end. Anti-war propagandists will make sure that, whatever the facts, the "stake" that everybody's got in the war according to Baker, is seen as too much to bear.

[Mr. Silverback]

You not only make a good point, but let me add this: The sorts of wars we’re fighting right now don’t require a draft to channel masses of manpower, so there’s the possibility that we wouldn’t draft people at all or draft just enough to make anti-war protests stronger.