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McCain: Draft would be unfair to poor families

A military draft will never work until there is a way to ensure that the children of wealthy families serve, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a Vietnam veteran and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

“Before I would even have remote consideration for it, someone has to tell me how rich people are forced to serve along with poor people. Rich people can always find a doctor who can say they have a bad knee,” McCain said Monday in a meeting with Military Times editors and reporters.

“You can call it a lottery or call it a banana; rich people get out of the draft,” he said. “I am not ready to go back to a totally unfair system where we ask the poorest people in this country to serve.”

McCain acknowledged that maintaining the all-volunteer force that has existed since 1972 is becoming more costly and that costs have yet to peak because it could take further significant bonuses and other incentives to convince current service members to stay in and youths to join up in a wartime environment.

“We are going to have to up the ante,” McCain said. “The all-volunteer force costs money. It is a marketplace out there.”

McCain acknowledged that some people serve for patriotic reasons while others look at different incentives, but he said he is convinced that the services can continue to recruit and retain enough high-quality people, even with an increase in Army and Marine Corps active-duty personnel that is a key element of McCain’s national security agenda if he is elected president.