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CNN Live Sunday

Lawrence Korb discusses the draft.

Aired September 17, 2001 - 19:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: There has been talk in the wake of the terrorist attacks of reinstating the draft. The Selective Service says the draft would be much different this day in age than it was during the Vietnam War. Joining me now from New York is Lawrence Korb who served as assistant secretary of defense during the Regan Administration. Mr. Korb, thanks for joining us.

First of all, your opinion, is reinstating the draft necessary right now?

LAWRENCE KORB, FMR. ASST. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Absolutely no. As you saw you have a lot of young men and women seeing this tragedy. They have a renewed sense of patriotism, they are going down to sign up and last year even before this, the military had met all of its recruiting goals.

And whatever else this war may be, it is not going to be very man power intensive. If you do use forces they will be unconventional forces, or special operations forces, probably air power. So this is really not something that would necessitate increasing the size of the armed forces and you really don't need a draft.

BLITZER: But what about those who argue for what the Pentagon calls homeland defense? There is going to require a whole lot more people working at airports and other secure locations and the military might be the best source for that kind of manpower.

KORB: Well, basically, the homeland defense is not just a Department of Defense mission, but the National Guard should be given that as their primary mission. In fact, that was recommended last March by a group that was set up by the president and the Congress to take a look at the whole situation for national security and I suspect that that will be their primary mission and they will not then be put in a position where they will have armored units to go fight a large land war which is a decreasing probability.

So I think what you will see is they will get that mission and they will get the resources and they will be the ones that will take the lead in dealing with that, both the Army and the Air National Guard.

BLITZER: Why does the Selective Service, which, of course still exists, believe that a draft, if it were reinstated, be a lot different today than it was during the Vietnam War? KORB: Because they would use a lottery system but they would not get rid of all the problems from Vietnam because if you allow deferments, for example for clergymen and you allow it for medical people, pretty soon once you allow one deferment you will have a whose host of others and the number of people that you would need would be very small, at most you would have to draft 50,000 out of a group of five or six million young people turning 18 each year.

BLITZER: You know a lot about manpower shortages in the military. Where are the major shortages right now?

KORB: The major shortages are those skills that are in high demand in the economy, pilots for example. But that situation may be changing with what is happening with the airlines. People with specialities in the information area is another place that you have it. But the military has really begun to adjust. They put a lot more efforts, a lot more money, a lot more recruiters in the last couple of years and in the last fiscal year they met all of their goals.

BLITZER: Is the military leadership satisfied with all the professional nature of the U.S. military as opposed to what used to be a draft service?

KORB: Very definitely because the all volunteer forces are also a very professional force. People stay in for longer and in this day in age, you can not learn all the skills that you need and be effective in a to year period of service, which draftees have.

Now, all of them, if given a choice would not want to go back and given the demographics it wouldn't make much sense because we as a country have never been able to decide who shall serve when not all shall serve. And you need only a very small portion of the youngsters in this country each year to come into the military to make it effective.

BLITZER: On this issue of the draft, do all four branches of the U.S. military speak with one voice, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps? Or are there nuances of difference?

KORB: No, they all pretty much speak the same. Initially, when we ended the draft in 1973 for about 10 years there was a great deal of concern particularly in the Army but that has change because they have seen that what you get is professionals. People stay longer periods of time. I think the turning point was the Gulf War because they saw how superbly those youngsters did there because unlike Vietnam, where people were in for short periods of time, these units had been together a long time and the soldiers as well as the sailors, airmen and Marines had really learned their skills.

BLITZER: Lawrence Korb, thanks for joining us.

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