LINCOLN — Sen. Chuck Hagel, speaking to an audience of Lincoln High School students, warned Tuesday that the nation may need to turn to compulsory military service "or some kind of draft" to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Questioned after his speech, Hagel, R-Neb., said he is not calling for reinstatement of the military draft.

But he said the growing difficulty of maintaining an adequate volunteer military force is "a reality."

"I'm just stating the obvious. At some point we're going to have to make a decision on how to attract a quality force," he said.

Hagel told the Lincoln students that the burdens of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are being carried by too small a share of the nation's population.

"We have more than 300 million people in this country, but less than 1 percent of our population has to bear all of the burden, to make all of the sacrifices, to do all the fighting and all the dying for the rest of us," he said.