Rumsfeld - No need to reintroduce military draft

Friday, April 23, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration sees no need to reinstate the military draft, but it is pushing for improved Pentagon management of the 1.4 million-strong force in order to meet wartime needs, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday. "I don't know anyone in the executive branch of the government who believes it would be appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft," Rumsfeld told the Newspaper Association of America's annual convention. The system of military conscription was abandoned in 1973.

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