Draft and conscription

Question

'draft' and 'conscription' mean compelled recruitment in to military serivce by the government?

Sam1947 · Accepted Answer

I'm sure there are historians or military experts that might have a more detailed answer, but the draft was a formal government program that followed certain protocols to call men of eligible age and health status up for military service, both during war and peacetime, in the U.S. (and maybe elsewhere).

Conscription was, as I understand it, when people were just taken at random and "conscripted" into service. This included citizens of other countries being conscripted into the service of countries not their own, etc.

That is the way it is understood in the U.S. It is possible that other governments formalized a process that they called conscription. I remember it from the early days of America, both before and after independence, when the British Navy would "conscript" Americans into service against their will by literally kidnapping them and forcing them to serve.

No offense to our British friends. America has many past sins to atone for, as well, so we would not be ones to cast the first stone.

Draft and conscription

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