At the present time, the United States does not have any enforced conscription provisions, in effect, for its military branches; mainly because despite the enormous size of its domestic military, it has been able to successfully recruit enough citizens to become members of it. That though has not always been the case, as there have been numerous instances of conscription being utilized, such as in the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam war. Not only has conscription been part and parcel of how America has historically geared up for war, but it has also, in order to get its citizens to comply, come with some rather stern penalties for those that evade, ignore, or actively work against the draft, with incarceration being the most common form of said punishment. Again, it must be noted, those that have been subsequently incarcerated for their failure to allow themselves to be conscripted, have committed the crime of, for example, evasion, desertion, the ignoring of, or of actively working against that draft; which demonstrates in principle, how important it is for this government that those that are legally compelled to be conscripted, duly comply.
It could be theorized that the main reason why there isn’t more pushback from the general public in regards to the wars that America insists upon conducting all throughout the world at the present time, is mainly because of the salient fact, that no citizen in America is currently being conscripted to fight in any of those wars. If, on the other hand, America was to somehow come up short in the manpower so needed to fight their wars, and brought back conscription, the number of protests and vociferous negative response from the people would probably take the form of the likes that had not been seen since the Vietnam War; especially if the war so necessitating such mandated recruitment, failed to win over the general public, in any meaningful way.
Still, that said, conscription in America is probably not going to come around again anytime soon, for America has a rather large underclass of young citizens, that are ill-educated, living in dilapidated circumstances, with poor infrastructure and with correspondingly poor prospects, who see the joining into the military as one of the few viable options that will put them in a good place, so they willingly sign up. Yet, having signed up, these recruits, perhaps focus too much on the positives of military service, while discounting and dismissing the negatives, too much; for to be a soldier, is to risk one’s own life and limb, as well as also one’s mind and well-being, for the killing of others, and the destruction of infrastructure; which can bring with such, the corresponding heaviness of knowing that one was a participant, directly or indirectly, with that which brings some degree of regret.
At the present time, America has the luxury of being able to conduct wars, both large and small, all over the world, because it has enough voluntary personnel, the money, and the equipment to do exactly that, without having to resort to conscription; of which, conscription, in and of itself, if it was to be reinstated, would serve as the focal rallying point for a multitude of others that see war as more often something far less than honorable, appropriate, or even, often times, necessary.