Conscription
Lincoln instituted the first national conscription in 1864 for the Civil War. He also suspended habeas corpus and invoked martial law to cope with the rebels. At least it was only for a limited emergency, until he could win the war of succession. Wilson doubled down for WWI and thanks to selective service legislation in 1917 the draft was available for Roosevelt to invoke to fight WWII. Renewal of the act n 1948 gave Truman the manpower for the Cold War and the Korean War. It was there for Vietnam until the draft ended under Nixon at the end of 1972. Carter reinstituted selective service registration in 1980, but there has been no call up since. It was all volunteers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Somalia, etc. It would be are hard case to make to claim a volunteer force led incompetently led can do better, but at least the casualties are volunteers.
Requiring, mandating, that young, healthy men fight, get maimed and die in wars they did not start has always drawn protests in thriving democracies. Not being one, that is what is happening now in Ukraine, even though the threat is up close and personal for its citizens. The US has demonstrated that we have a sufficient number of volunteers of every persuasion to sustain a 20-year war and still kick out the ones best trained and experienced when they object to being treated like lab rats.
It has been 3 generations since young men had to fear that their number would come up. The lottery has a whole new meaning now, but if history, ancient and recent, tells us anything it should be to not get complacent. We could see a return of the draft if our “leaders” can’t scare enough into volunteering to fight the next existential threat. It worked for COVID for 2 years on most of the country. Mushroom clouds are even scarier if melting icebergs can’t do the trick.