Military recruitment has been steadily rising since before President Donald Trump retook the White House, but the enthusiasm for military service may stop short of support for a military draft amid the increasingly unpopular war in Iran.

Come December, eligible men will be automatically registered into the U.S. military draft pool via the Selective Service System – the federal agency that oversees the database of men eligible for service in the event of a military draft.

The new automatic registration process was approved by Congress under the National Defense Authorization Act and was signed by Trump in December 2025, but as the war in Iran continues with no end in sight, the debate has resurfaced and raised a host of questions.

So we asked you, our readers: Should regular citizens be required to participate in a draft? And for what reasons could someone be exempted? Should it be only men? How old should conscripts be?

Below are some of the responses you gave us. For more opportunities to weigh in at usatoday.com/forum, leave us a voicemail at (202) 655-3923 or drop us a note at forum@usatoday.com.

The United States can have a draft when we care for our own people

Any nation that automatically registers men to fight and die, but refuses to automatically register them to vote, does not deserve to be defended.

Any coward who refused to fight when their nation issued a call to action is not qualified to call anyone else to action.

Why should anyone volunteer to fight and die for an uncivilized nation that does not provide its citizens with basic human rights? Health care, housing, food security, education and retirement are human........

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