It is absolutely remarkable that the United States had not had a draft or conscription since 1973. While the uninitiated and unenlightened might believe that this is so, because Americans are natural born patriots, the truth of the matter is far more illuminating. For instance, while there will always be myriad reasons as to why individuals sign up to serve their country, it should first be noted, that because America is the preeminent military power in the world, and hence is the country that has no peer in regards to the violence and destruction it dishes out, and thereby suffers few causalities and damages, itself, means that America is a winner, no matter the result of any one war or engagement. This means, that soldiers in America's armed forces, while being respectful that they could well suffer harm and even death in their duty, recognize that it is always the other guy that will do most of the suffering and most of the dying, because America's military might and muscle is shockingly frightening in its power and its awesome impact.
So that, quite obviously, being on the winning team helps a great deal in the enlistment and recruitment of inductees. So too, does the fact that America is a country which has a very high income disparity, so that therefore there is an abundance of young individuals that come from nothing, have nothing, and desire to have something of value. This thus means, that the armed forces have a real attraction to all those that intuitively recognize that in order to get out of their current predicament, this is going to necessitate an institution that can provide them a real opportunity. Fortunately, for these potential recruits, the armed forces, through the generosity of its government, does indeed put together a very competitive package for those that are in need of good health benefits, subsidized housing, valuable pension benefits, steady and reliable income, along with those educational discounts.
So too, because in general, those that are in the armed forces are accorded a very decent respect from the general public, this signifies that those that come from humble, disadvantaged, troubling, or areas of the country that seem to be anachronistic in nature, are able to now find something that may well provide them with the desirable accouterments of esteem, and therefore in its own way, a real piece of the American dream.
Of course, for all this to work in a way in which these soldiers are actually competent and skilled in their performance of their duties, this necessitates strict and exacting discipline, teamwork, molding, propaganda, repetition, peer pressure, and relentless demands by those that are in charge and have responsibility that these volunteers become formed into one cohesive unit that will perform their duties without equivocation or hesitation. After all, there must be instilled a belief in these soldiers that they are now an integral part of their country, and thereby they need to believe that what their country needs from them, that they must therefore do, which will be dutifully done in faithful service to that country, signifying that those that serve such have now bought into the belief, that this is their country, right or wrong.