Posted on 01/29/2013 7:12:33 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
adies, for the first time ever, Uncle Sam soon may be pointing at you.
Days after the Pentagon cleared women to take certain combat roles, advocacy groups for military women say another new hour has arrived for all young female adults to register with Selective Service, the giant pool of names collected by the government should America ever opt to revive the draft.
The movement to require women ages 18 to 25 to sign up for Selective Service — mirroring the law for all U.S. men in that demographic — is rooted in both active-duty and veteran circles.
The Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), which strives to represent all women in the armed forces, believes such a change is simply the logical next step to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s decision last week to erase the long prohibition on females in combat.
“SWAN advocates for the inclusion of women into Selective Service,” said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of SWAN and a former Marine Corps captain. “Lifting the ban on women officially serving in combat is about giving qualified women the opportunity to serve and making our military stronger, and that would include having women register for Selective Service."
“If you are going to say ‘total equality’ in the military, that has to include Selective Service registration,” agreed Cassaundra StJohn, founder and CEO of F7 Group, which provides resources, training and mentoring to female veterans. StJohn served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve between 1985 and 1998, reaching the rank of staff sergeant.
Amid his historic announcement last week, Panetta alerted administrators of the Selective Service System “to exercise some judgment based on what we just did.”
Selective Service officials heard that remark. Since then the agency — an independent office within the executive branch — has been conducting a "what-if drill" in case a Defense official or Congressional member asks what adding women to agency's workload would cost the country, said Pat Schuback, spokesperson for Selective Service.
"We're not the policy-making group. We're kind of like mechanics. We just do what we're told to do. We have the mechanism. We don't hold a position on whether to draft women or not," Schuback said.
Should that change occur, Selective Service — which has about 130 full-time employees across the country — would "need to be probably resourced a little bit," Schuback added. "But we don't anticipate that it would be a lot because the machinery's the same. It would be in the man hours of answering the inquires, handling questions and doing direct mails out to people to remind them" to register.
Panetta also set a May 15 deadline for each service branch to provide “detailed plans for implementation” on how female service members will be placed into combat duties, said Nathan Christensen, a Pentagon spokesman.
“Following that, a formal notification to Congress will be made, detailing (combat) occupations that will be opened to women,” Christensen said. “Selective Service requirements are determined by law, and we can't speculate on any changes to law.”
However, federal law does require DOD — after making such sweeping policy changes — to provide a breakdown of the impact those shifts may have on the Selective Service Act, senior Defense officials said in a briefing last week. That analysis, they added, “will be part of the notification to Congress” made by DOD after each branch reports back to Panetta in May.
One female veteran who was attached with an infantry team in Ghazni, Afghanistan, argues that with the female-combat ban gone, women should now be Constitutionally guaranteed the right to be eligible for Selective Service — and a possible military draft.
“It can be hard to adapt to new customs. There will be some feathers ruffled,” said Courtney Witt, a former Air Force senior airman, who also served in Iraq. “... It is a little difficult, for some, to see our daughters, sisters and wives go off into war.
“I can’t explain the feeling you have when you have fought alongside brothers and sisters in arms. It’s a bond that can never be broken ... It’s an amazing patriotic feeling,” Witt said. “Shouldn’t any man or woman be a part of that?”
The drawdown of U.S. forces and the pullout from Afghanistan make the chances of a draft reinstatement far less likely than, say, even eight years ago when Coalition forces were battle-thin and bogged down in Iraq, experts say.
But there are some in Washington who still favor bringing back the draft — as a deterrent to war.
In 2010, Rep. Charles Rangel, D.-N.Y., reintroduced a bill that would require all U.S. men and women between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either in the military or in a civilian service that helps national defense. The bill died in committee.
At least four times before, Rangel has written similar bills that would have restored the draft.
“There's no question in my mind," Rangel told the New York Times in 2007, "that we wouldn't be in Iraq ... if indeed we had a draft, and members of Congress and the administration thought that kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way."
Im sure the bum in the White House is all for it.
But this is the result of decades of feminazi liberal push. We should have pushed back harder when we had the chance, now we all pay a price.
Hahahaha.
Where’s “Walks like a ducks” Selective Service registration card?
Oh yeah....HAHAHAHAHA! Quacks like a duck can’t produce an egg, let alone a card.
Hahahaha!
I always look to a former USAF E4 for heavy thinking on national security affairs...how could we go wrong???
sorry, but its not true....we're seeing it before our eyes....
end pensions and you'll see who really sticks around in the service....
stop making mercenaries out of out military by having dangling carrots infront of them...
And now, they’ll get to deal with the penalty for not registering for Selective Service, chief among these for young people is not being able to receive federal financial aid.
There’s also states that enact penalties and denial of state aid for not registering.
I say Sasha & Malia should set the tone & be the first to register for selective service.
Selective Service Law REQUIRES Illegal Immigrants to register for Selective Service. In researching the stats a couple years ago, the registration for Illegal Immigrants is near ZERO compliance compared with approx 95% compliance for American Citizen Males and Legal Residents. Illegal Immigrants and Legal Residents are REQUIRED to register if living in the US for more than a year (unless a treaty with their government does not allow SService registration). Failure to do so (even if older than 25, but was living here during the registration age and failed to register) has consequences for the AMERICAN CITIZEN, LEGAL RESIDENT, and Illegal Immigrant. No Federal Benefits, Student Loans, Federal jobs, and if a Legal Resident or an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, MAY PREVENT CITIZENSHIP.
What the Heck does the Illegal Immigrant Lobby not understand about that? American citizens and Legal Residents are required to follow the LAW but here’s another LAW Illegal Immigrants can thumb their nose at and get REWARDED.
While men and women are equal as persons, I do not want to be treated like a man and I do not want my daughters treated like a man. If some women want to be treated like a men, that is their choice but do not force it on the rest of us.
This is shameful to even suggest it. A civilized country wouldn’t even think of such a concept.
I wonder if zero’s daughters will be drafted, or will they be exempted? Different strokes for different folks, ya know. I can’t find the words to express my disdain for the American voters who put this POS back in office. I’ve even shut off long-standing friends because they voted for him - that’s how deep my loathing goes.
But there is NO WAY IN HELL I was strong enough to be on the front lines in a war situation. I can face reality, I'm built differently. The world is upside down. I understand the point that if women are going to be on the front lines, they should have to register with selective service. But they shouldn't have to register because they shouldn't be on the front lines! My daughters WILL NOT be drafted! If one of my daughters were drafted and faced a front line deployment... I don't know what I'd do!
I’m sure all those illegal men and women (dreamers too) will be going down to register.
Don’t forget the Boy Scouts.
What they are doing is destroying every vestige of masculinity left in America.
They want a nation of frightened little pussies who turn to big tough dykes to protect them.
But the big tough dyke works for the government.
And it is the big tough dyke who has her boot on your neck pushing you to the ground.
But you are right, Obammie the Commie and all those who pull his strings, are SABOTAGING America.
Phyllis Schlafly warned about this over 40 years ago when the crybaby-libhags were moaning about “equality.”
Have you read Animal Farm?
These are the new, righteous, caring Socialist Pigs. They replaced the old, greedy, Capitalistic, Chauvinistic Pigs of yesterday.
So they are good tyrants.
Yes, you do.
You’d do exactly what the rest of us would do.
You’d pack your family up and head out of the country.
If I had a daughter, I’d never let he be drafted to go fight in a war.
If I had a son, I’d never let him fight in a war caused by the Socialist economic policies of Obammie and his Commies.
Obammie the Commie would love to see millions of middle-class white boys and girls get killed in a war caused by deficit spending. He considers that part of his social justice, because it was always minorities that died in the “white man’s wars.” Yes, that is a factual lie, but it is the one Rev. Wrong preached to Obammie the Commie for 20 years.
You think I’m kidding?
If Obama is going to have a totalitarian state, he will need a means to control and indoctrinate all the young people, not just the men. The draft is the perfect way to do it. This whole thing seems to be happening with increasing speed. Health care, EPA/CO2 regulations, gun control, food stamps, student loans, immigration, and now the draft.
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