Mark Shields on wars, drafts and tax increases

Last night on PBS's NewsHour, Mark Shields claimed that America has never fought a war, before the Iraq war, in which neither a draft nor tax increases were utilized. It isn't the first time he has argued that.

The U.S. has had an all-voluntary military since 1973. Since then, we have fought wars in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans and arguably in Somalia. Obviously, we have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq as well. Tax increases of one kind or another occur almost every year, including during the years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. If Shields was referring to a general tax increase, which he probably was, we did not have that during the Persian Gulf war.

Shields shoots his mouth off a lot.