Was there compulary service during the Dominion War?

[Deranged Nasat]

Never mind! I realized my point didn't in fact make much sense within the context of the comments given, at least upon second reading. Please excuse me.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

The TNG episode "The Survivors" mentioned something along these lines. The dowd (or however you spelled it) stated that during the invasion he "chose not to fight" Picard responded by saying "and that is your protected right".

Nice work; you know your Trek.

I am not totally sure this is can be used as a universal discounting of the draft for Starfleet argument. Don't get me wrong, I think the writers of DS9 didn't mention it specifically for a reason.

Even within US history, the draft did not apply to everyone. For example, if someone fell out of the age range of the draft (In the Civil War I believe people well into their 40s were drafted, not sure what the age was during Vietnam) their age status would "protect" them.

Just putting this out there for discussion.

Indeed. We all know rights are often applied selectively; can we be sure all citizens would enjoy the same legally protected rights? This being the UFP, I'd assume so, but you never know. People aren't very good at the whole "equality" thing, even when it's their favourite buzzword. The comment doesn't automatically mean everyone would share that person's "protected right".

 

[HairOfTheDog]

It's a matter of need. There are only so many Starships fielded at a time.

Though the Starfleet "soldiers" could throw a monkey in that wrench...

 

[Jbarney]

I think conscription would be less a matter of serving in the fleet than using the available population to fight a ground invasion. With it being the 24th century, I highly doubt there were ground invasions that last for really long periods of time, but as we did see in DS9, some systems were hot beds of action throughout the duration of the conflict.