If the U.S. goes to war, how will the military recruit its combatants/militants?

 It is very difficult for Mennonties to live in a country that tries to force its young men to join its military. No one can predict the future methods of American military recruitment/conscription. We do have some clues, though which we should all be thinking about now.

First, it is possible but unlikely there will be a draft. In the 1970s, the United States used the law to force men either to join the military to fight its war of aggression in Vietnam or to go to prison. In the 2020s, Russia is using the law to force its men into its to fights its war of aggression against Ukraine or go to prison. 500 years ago, Europe's governments used church baptismal records to identify young men who would be forced into militaries or prisons. If constructivists are right, the world's military powers are learning that drafts are a bad idea that should be abandoned and relegated to history. 

Drafts no longer work in the United States. Whenever a draft happens, young men take extreme measures to escape being forced onto battlefields. Mennonites join the throngs of draft evaders because our religious objections to killing. America's Vietnam-era draft was so destructive to society that the holders of political power in Washington were forced to abandon it

Every once-in-a-while, a scholar or thinker proposes bringing back the draft in the United States.  If America catches war fever and gets involved in another world war, the draft could potentially be reinstated. The "Selective Service System" is what the U.S. uses to identify young men to be drafted. It hasn't been dismantled yet and could theoretically be switched back on in a matter of days. Politically that's unlikely, but possible. The organization called The Center on Conscience & War is monitoring all discussion of bringing back the draft. Anyone concerned with this issue should make a donation to get on this organization's mailing list.

Since the 1970s, the U.S. military has changed its recruiting method; it no longer uses the force of law and the threat of prison to force men to kill, instead it uses patriotism, nationalism, appeals to emotion, and most notably, financial rewards/coercion to get young men to join the military. The most concerning trend, in my opinion, is what activists call "The Poverty Draft". Since the 1970s, the U.S. government has targeted poor children for military recruitment. The message: the only way you'll have any money as an adult is if you join the military now. This poverty draft could easily be expanded; more financial pressure could be placed on young men to coerce them to either join the military or suffer financial ruin. 

The United States is not above using financial coercion against its citizens. The U.S. coerced millions of workers to get the COVID vaccine in 2022 by threatening that they would be fired and left without incomes if they failed to comply. Canada coerced its citizens to stop protesting against the government policies by forcing banks to freeze the bank accounts and payment cards of anyone who disagreed, suddenly making ordinary citizens with the wrong political views unable to buy groceries and pay bills. The United States could easily manufacture a financial crisis in the lives of millions of young American men, then provide a path out of their crisis that requires them to join the military. Such coercion to kill would be a natural enlargement of the existing "poverty draft".

Another concern is for our young Mennonite brothers who have immigrated to the United States. Immigrating to the United States is a multi-year and difficult process with many steps along the way. Mennonites should probably stop intentionally immigrating to the United States now, as countries such as Belize are more amenable to peaceful immigrants. However some Mennonites find themselves in the U.S. as refugees or asylum seekers and are stuck here. Anyone in the midst of a process of immigration to the United States is in danger of intense coercion to join the military and do America's killing. With the stroke of a pen, the American president could make immigration easy for men willing to kill and difficult for men who refuse to kill. This has already happened in the "Dream Act" program. Dreamers are faced with the choice of either joining the military and being paid to kill or going into debt for an expensive college education.

A draft in the United States is unlikely but possible. It would be easier for the United States to expand its existing financial and immigration-related coercion to persuade young men to join up and kill in the American wars of aggression. Efforts like the draft and financial coercion are generally successful with the general population, but not with Mennonites whose religious identities prohibit killing. 

Any American military coercion or conscription campaign will  make it difficult for young Mennonite men in the U.S. who conscientiously cannot kill in America's wars.