Rep. Rangel Will Seek to Reinstate Draft

U.S. soldiers knee next to a wall in Baqouba, an increasingly violent, mostly Sunni city about 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006. Fierce fighting between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces sent many residents fleeing inside as the sound of machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades rocked the city. Three Iraqi policemen were killed and three wounded, and one insurgent was killed and two suspected ones detained, the coalition said. (AP Photo) (AP)

Graham said he believes the all-voluntary military "represents the country pretty well in terms of ethnic makeup, economic background."

Repeated polls have shown that about seven in 10 Americans oppose reinstatement of the draft and officials say they do not expect to restart conscription.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in June 2005 that "there isn't a chance in the world that the draft will be brought back."

Yet the prospect of the long global fight against terrorism and the continuing U.S. commitment to stabilizing Iraq have kept the idea in the public's mind.

The military drafted conscripts during the Civil War, both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. An agency independent of the Defense Department, the Selective Service System trains, keeps an updated registry of men age 18-25 _ now about 16 million _ from which to supply untrained draftees that would supplement the professional all-volunteer armed forces.

Rangel and Graham appeared on "Face the Nation" on CBS.

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Selective Service System: http://www.sss.gov