Best solution to eliminate the draft women issue.
Yeah there is a whole lot of anachronistic parts of the Government like this that needs to be phased out. Mass conscript armies are a thing of the past.
Don’t we actually have to start the draft first?
Disagree. Selective Service should stay. Women on the other hand don’t belong in Combat roles.
We could do like Rome. Just hire outsiders to defend the place. What are the Huns doing these days?
Red Dawn.
Reagan ran on doing this in 1980.
He criticized it as a waste of taxpayer’s money.
Particularly when speaking to young people.
Two months after inauguration he sent Ed Meese out there to read a canned statement that they would not be doing this.
Perhaps the lone dishonest thing I recall him doing.
Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama will now have a cow.
If the draft is ended, how can Democrats get voters if they don’t pardon draft dodgers?
One physical fitness standard.
One height/weight standard.
One deployability standard.
This issue must be scaring the political elite to death.
I'm not saying there might be a time when America must call on its young people to serve, but registration might not be necessary any more.
The database already exists that contains the names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. of everyone of draftable age. With a little cross-checking you could exclude those with disabilities, medical issues, active college transcripts, children, etc.
There is no draft.
As a personnel clerk in the Army I saw the papers of many draftees like me. We volunteerd for the draft.
The draft needs to be made volunteer. Patriots could register and say: I dont want to go active, or even National Guard, at this time. But I will go if really needed. Such volunteers would not get paid. They could get recognition for physical training aka fitness center. they could get recognition for weapons training, for a variety of skills including hi-tech skills the military needs. When the military does have a real need, it could more quickly identify these volunteers from its register, its database.
But it would be voluntary. And little cost to the taxpayer compared to the benefit.
From a pure Constitutional point of view, the fact that a mere act/law/statute enabling conscription even exists shatters every other argument we can muster about privacy, government intrusion, private property, and Constitutional rights.
Amendments are required to grant the FedGov non-enumerated powers such as the authority to regulate alcohol or establish an income tax on individuals but for something as extreme as taking your 18-year old and shoving him into some 3rd world hellhole against his will it's all just peachy ( It'll be a good experience for him! ). We don't need no stinking Amendment. How can anyone possibly question the FedGov's ability to control healthcare or firearms or speech but at the same time support involuntary servitude? This requires industrial strength cognitive dissonance.
Nevermind the fact that our 18-year olds these days are so immature compared to 100 or 60 years ago, but who would really want some random punk forced against his will to be watching your soldier or Marine son's back?
This is one of the worst legacies of the Civil War, the Congressional parallel to Presidential habeas corpus revocation. And if you think about it, our wars have caused the most severe destruction of our Constitution and Declaration. World War I saw muzzling of the people and the press, World War II still includes income withholding. No-one blinks an eye even after all these years. God help us.
End it, raise the voting age to 30.
If Coffman thinks we can fight anything other than a route with the volunteer military he is deluding himself. There will be no volunteers to fight a Korea, World War II or Vietnam style ground war against a tough, numerous enemy. Coffman needs to talk to somebody who fought in Tet or Chosin.
I’ve said for years that we’ll never see another military draft in this country. A country run by inside-the-Beltway @ssholes whose own families always stay out of harm’s way has no moral authority to draft anyone.
As an aside, I think that this draft registration tempest may begin to amount to something. If it does, my guess is that Cruz is on the right side of the GOP base and the rest of the folks on the wrong side. Sadly, Tim would have so much more credibility had he himself put a few year in uniform.
Stupid idea.
If it becomes necessary to mobilize for war (either before or after the fact), already knowing basic information about the pool of eligible citizens and resident aliens (yes, they are eligible for the draft, as well)and having an established system for them to be called into service in an orderly manner will be an important first step. If we disband the Selective Service and this need arises in the future, we would simply have to rebuild it all over again.
The former Marine Congressman fronting this legislation probably doesn’t appreciate the recruiting difficulties that would be experienced supporting a very rapid expansion of the armed forces using voluntary enlistment alone. He also probably isn’t aware that the proudly volunteer Marine Corps accepted draftees during WWII, Korea, and even Vietnam.
Today’s armed forces are small compared to those required to fight a major world war. For some perspective, consider that the present Marine Corps active forces are about 2 1/2 MEFs (division/wing/logistics group teams). During World Ward II, active Marine Corps forces were the equivalent of 6 MEFs. The US Navy presently has 233 commissioned ships. During WWII, it had over 1200. During WWII, the US Army numbered 51 infantry and armored divisions in the European Theater alone. The Eight Air Force of “12 O’clock High” fame had approximately 100 heavy bomber squadrons in it. The total US armed forces during WWII numbered some 14 million persons, if I recall the figures correctly. The current armed forces number approximately 1.4 million active and 800 thousand reserve.
I am not suggesting that the next major world war will require the force densities suggested by WWII order of battle numbers. But, if this future war goes on long enough and doesn’t go nuclear, a substantial mobilization will be required once existing regular forces begin experiencing significant casualties and other loses. Armed forces recruiters struggle to fill current force structure requirements. There is simply no way they could find enough qualified persons to voluntarily fill out a force structure that had to be two, three, or more times as large and filled FAST.