Posted on 02/11/2016 11:09:14 AM PST by xzins
Conservative leaders are opposiong the position taken by top military commanders that all young women be required to register with the Selective Service System, with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) summing up the mood of many on the Right: "I do not want to see my 15-year-old daughter drafted."
In December, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that all combat positions without exception – including those in elite special forces units - would be open to women, and ordered all service chiefs to submit plans to implement the new policy by January 1.
Last week, top military brass told the Senate Armed Services Committee that all young women should also be required to register with Selective Service. "I think that all eligible and qualified men and women should register for the draft," said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
But when CNSNews.com asked conservative leaders: "Do you support requiring all young American women to register for the draft?" the response was overwhelmingly negative.
"No. I do not want to see my 15-year-old daughter drafted into the military and every mother and father I've talked to in Utah feels the same," Sen. Lee told CNSNews.com.
"I do not support putting women into direct combat and I think including young women in draft registration is a terrible idea," agreed Gary Bauer, president of American Values.
"Requiring women to register for Selective Service is unequal and unfair to women and certainly harmful to the military," Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness (CMR), told CNSNews.com.
"Selective Service is a low-cost insurance policy to provide 'combat replacements' in the event of a national emergency. It is exactly the opposite of choice.
"Ordering women into the same combat environment on the same basis as men is not giving them an equal opportunity to survive," Donnelly pointed out. "The most recent research backs up that fact."
"According to a special interim report released in December by CMR, a Marine Corps study found that "the assessment across all occupational specialties revealed that gender-integrated teams, squads, or crews demonstrated, with very few exceptions, degraded performance… directly related to the physiological differences between males and females
The Pentagon’s "plan to order women into direct ground combat units by January 2016 would needlessly harm military women, men in the combat arms, and the All-Volunteer Force on which national security depends," the CMR report concluded.
Major Michael Berry, a former active duty Marine officer and JAG attorney who is currently director of military affairs at the Liberty Institute, told CNSNews.com that drafting women is a "dangerous" idea that "disregards the natural differences between men and women."
"It also raises a lot of questions: Will women be allowed to be conscientious objectors because of their sincere religious belief that women should not be conscripted to fight wars?" Berry asked. "Will they conscript women who are pregnant or have young children?
"This is just another step towards removing constitutional protections that have existed since the time of our nation’s founders in the name of political correctness," he added.
"We are quite firmly against women being required to register for selective service," David Theroux, founder and president of the Independent Institute, told CNSNews.com. "This is just more inane, ‘progressive’ (i.e. authoritarian) involuntary servitude, all in the name of feminism."
"We do not support women in combat, and therefore also do not support registration for the draft," Charles Orndoff, administrative vice president of Americans for Constitutional Liberty, formerly known as the Conservative Caucus, told CNSNews.com.
Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, echoed other conservatives in his opposition to requiring women to register for the draft: "I do not believe women should be forced to register for the draft or for any service. We should not force women into military service," Staver told CNSNews.com.
"I do not support the requirement [for women to register for the draft] in any sense since I do not believe that God created women to be part of the military or in any way involved in combat or defense of a nation," said Judie Brown, president of the American Life League.
The issue of drafting women was raised during last Saturday’s Republican debate in New Hampshire.
"Americans do not want the government to send our daughters into battle against their will, and it is frankly shocking that any Republican candidate for president would not oppose the suggestion in the strongest terms," Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin (US Army-Ret.), executive vice president of the Family Research Council, said in a statement following the debate.
"Some of the presidential candidates appear to be espousing the politically correct position that women should be required to register with Selective Service. In supporting this draft registration policy, these candidates demonstrate a serious misunderstanding of the imperative for combat effectiveness and of the American people," Boykin added.
Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council. (Facebook)
"When women feel called to serve in the military, we fully support them as long as they meet all necessary standards," said Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, in a statement after the debate. "The most important thing is combat readiness. Our military's only job is to protect our nation. There should be no gender norming of standards to serve.
"It is very different to suggest that women should ever be forced to serve in combat roles or become part of a mandatory draft to combat service. Feminism cares more for political correctness than it does for women," Nance stated.
However, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) did not rule out the idea of drafting women.
When CNSNews.com asked her if she supported the recommendation that all young American women be required to register with Selective Service, she replied: "It's an important question. I don't know what the answer is, but it's time to have the discussion. The all -volunteer military is a cornerstone of our strength, and we cannot afford to put that in peril.
"At the same time, if you are going to open all elements of military service to women, it is hard to justify not including them in selective service," Blackburn said.
You're absolutely right, but there seem to be a fair number of people who are okay with that as long as women aren't subject to the draft.
All combat positions being opened to women is an Obama Admin mandate that passed almost without a whimper from most conservatives. There wasn't an outcry until the issue of draft registration popped up.
It seems the feminists would be for this. “Equality” and all.
“This ‘draft women’ thing is a tactic by the Democrats to try and force more females into voting for Democrats”
Nope.. not unless Duncan Hunter switched parties.
I agree with Hunter that a full discussion should’ve been conducted on opening up combat specialties to women, and if legislation like this is what’s needed to force that discussion, then all the better.
That is the only way they can draw attention to the underlying insanity of putting women in ground combat units.
...Which is exactly why I like "put up or shut up" legislation like that.
In the first place Mike, ‘15-year-olds’ DON’T get drafted. Secondly, there is no requirement that the ladies would have to be in combat; for every combat soldier there are 10 REMF’s. There are plenty of bedpans to be emptied, floors to be swabbed and paper to be pushed. Thirdly, it is simply a question of fairness; if men have to put their behinds on the line in defense of our nation, ‘the ladies’, should be required to as well. It is so funny to hear people who all our lives have been saying they are just as good as men, that they can do anything men can do, suddenly clam up completely when it comes time to put up or shut up. Well, it’s time.
We’ve got too many whose views are based on their disdain for the feminist movement.
As if my daughters should pay because Germaine Greer hacked them off.
As far as I can tell, every other GOP candidate has been either silent on the issue, or (like Jeb, Christie, and Rubio) is perfectly fine with it.
Cruz is clearly against registering women, but I can't tell where he is on the women in combat units issue.
See #27.
Also, EVERY service member is a fighter and is fighter trained.
When your forces are overrun, there isn’t an ‘off-season’ where you get to have a new draft and field a new team next year.
The people at the computers are given weapons and they go plug holes in the line.
I had to register 35 years ago and prove it periodically to keep my job.
I am opposed to women in combat roles and quite a few other military positions. They do very well in intel, though.
If women are allowed in combat MOSs then all women of military age should have to register for the draft. Let everyone have skin in the game until women are barred from combat by statute.
Women-in-combat (and gays-in-the-military) is part of a leftist scheme to weaken the US armed forces in order to undermine the role of the military in our foreign policy.
/rant
If women are allowed to serve in all military positions, how can one possibly argue against also registering them for the draft? It’s insanity of course, but it’s insanity brought on by the feminists who pushed for women in combat. How in the world can it be OK to draft a man against his will but allow women to pick and choose what they want to do? That’s not equality.
No, because the issue is winning wars and women are not as effective as proven by countless studies.
It is not equal to tell the fat kid or the kid with diabetes that he doesn’t qualify, but the idea is to WIN.
No, it doesn’t. It has always been, and should always be, the primary responsibility of men to protect women and children from attack.
I suppose most Americans know, if they think about it, that you don’t get a ‘do-over’ on a lost war.
Cruz wasn’t asked the question but denounced it the next day before Jeb and Rubio had polling on it:
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/07/cruz-women-draft-nuts/
” How in the world can it be OK to draft a man against his will but allow women to pick and choose what they want to do”
See my posts # 13 and 19.
JEB stepped in the ‘ooompah’ again!
Remember the young German girl whose plea went viral about the muslims raping and abusing German women: She said, “
Men of Germany, these people are killing your children, they are killing your women. We need your protection. We are so scared”
http://www.podblanc.guru/16-year-old-german-girls-plea-for-help-against-muslims-blocked-censored-by-facebook-jan-20-2016_a8bf65b3f.html
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