Credence Clearwater Revival is going to have to change the lyrics to its 1969 song, Fortunate Son. The song was a condemnation of how the connected could avoid the draft, could avoid going to Vietnam, could avoid dying in Southeast Asia for a war they neither understood nor supported. But then, it was just boys who were drafted to fight.
Now, it’s just boys who, upon reaching their 18th year, have to register with Selective Services for the draft. No, we don’t have an active draft, but if needed, the mechanism exists. Male privilege reared its ugly head.
In 1981, in Rostker v. Goldberg, the Supreme Court rejected a sex-discrimination challenge to the registration requirement, reasoning that it was justified because women could not at that time serve in combat.
“Since women are excluded from combat service by statute or military policy,” Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the majority, “men and women are simply not similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft.”
But that could soon change.
In 2019, Judge Gray H. Miller, of the Federal District Court in Houston, ruled that since women can now serve in combat, the men-only registration requirement was no longer justified. A unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, agreed that “the factual underpinning of the controlling Supreme Court decision has changed.” But it said that only the Supreme Court could overrule its own precedent.
Women can serve. Women can fight in combat. Women enlist in the armed forces and serve with honor and distinction, but they do so as a matter of choice. The ACLU seeks to eliminate that choice.
Ria Tabacco Mar, who holds the position at the A.C.L.U. that Justice Ginsburg once had, said the Frontiero decision was proof that sex discrimination by the government without good reason should be unlawful in any part of society. Treating the military differently, she said, “would be a huge disservice to Justice Ginsburg’s legacy and the jurisprudence she created.”
There is little doubt that the argument is sound and correct. Heck, it’s even principled. But then, who in their right mind would want to make a group amenable to being drafted to fight and die in war if they didn’t have to?
The government has not drafted anyone since the Vietnam War, and there is no reason to think that will change. The challengers say that is a reason for the court to act now, before a crisis arises.
Will there be another “crisis” that demands the drafting of young people between the ages of 18 and 26? History suggests there will, as war seems to be one of those things that invariably happen, although the nature of warfare has changed such that ground troops aren’t as central to modern tactics of engagement. Still, they’re needed and used, and circumstances may require a far more bodies than volunteer.
There is an odd hope that requiring women to register for the draft will cause a rethinking of the draft itself.
“Should the court declare the men-only registration requirement unconstitutional,” their brief said, “Congress has considerable latitude to decide how to respond. It could require everyone between the ages of 18 and 26, regardless of sex, to register; it could rescind the registration requirement entirely; or it could adopt a new approach altogether, such as replacing” the registration requirement “with a more expansive national service requirement.”
Indeed, it could require every able-bodied citizen to put in a few years of military services as well, but there is no reason to think it would do anything other than add women to the registration requirement now in place for men. Some former military officers have backed the ACLU as amici.
“Including women in the Selective Service would double the pool of candidates available to draft,” their supporting brief said, “raising the overall quality of the conscripted force and enabling the nation to better meet its military needs.”
Other former military officers have said aloud the problematic detail.
The brief said that Congress rather than the court should decide who must register. It added that the challengers “also fail to address the elephant in the room: Men, as a group, are stronger, bigger, faster and have greater endurance than women as a group.”
Should there be a crisis and need for the draft, would it matter if half our GIs were women who were up against an army of men? Recognizing that it’s impolitic to distinguish the physical differences between males and females, there remains that biological reality that can be called a “social construct” all day long, but won’t win in hand-to-hand combat.
Ms. Mar questioned the idea that women were less qualified to serve. “The notion that modern warfare depends on brute strength,” she said, “is outdated and inaccurate.”
To some extent, this is true, as modern warfare is more about drones and planes dropping bunkerbuster bombs than trenches. But it doesn’t necessarily preclude ground troops in combat, either. If that’s where GI Jane ends up, screaming “this is outdated” at the brute trying to kill her isn’t likely to work.
The argument that women should be required to register for the draft just as men seems remarkably obvious at this point, given the combination of arguments favoring equality and arguments diminishing claims of physical differences that would serve as a limiting principle. And yet, the question unanswered is why would anyone want to make it easier to be drafted if they didn’t have to?
Well, last week the US Army halted the gender-neutral Army Combat Fitness Test as too many women were failing. At least that shows the Army has an inkling that sexual equality isn’t going to happen.
I expect the biggest factor is that the USA neatly dodges any chance of a big war and picks on 3rd-world countries to fight. At that rate women can pull their own weight as the technology is far ahead. In a big war, a couple of EMP nukes and all battlefield electronics crash, then its back to who can carry the biggest gun.
It would be nice to get rid of the draft so those who want to fight can join up & the rest can work on political solutions to problems, although ironically the best reason to have registration is to remind people that the Govt controls your life and death completely.
The Army halted combat training because of COVID, not because too many women were failing. I would personally appreciate it if you held your comments until the end of the day, so as not to turn my comments into a steaming pile of batshit crazy nonsense. TIA.
Aw, sorry Boss, its just you guys live at the dead end of the dateline. I do often wait until the next day..
Meanwhile-
“Following the recommendations of a Pentagon study, the U.S. Army has halted the gender-neutral Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) test as female soldiers were failing it at a rate of 65 percent. A review to make the test fair to “both genders” is underway.”
Covid was last year, this is last week.
You’re right. That was last week. I maligned your wrongly, but I still prefer you comment at the backend.
C’mon gals, put down your books and pick up a gun,
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun
Or the other elephant. The brutes trying to gang rape her. Physical differences, right?
That’s an excellent point.
Hell, yes. And then kill her.
“Maybe just train the male soldiers not to rape.”
– A Good Ally
We need a new Geneva convention that allows warring sides to train the other side’s brutes in proper sexual conduct.
You boys are hilarious.
Two by Kipling.
The Young British Soldier.
“ When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
and the women come out to cut up what remains,
jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.”
The Female Of The Species.
“ When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws –
‘Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale –
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.”
It’s worth it to read both poems as they are just as true today as when they were written.
Soviets had reasonably good luck with it.
“It added that the challengers “also fail to address the elephant in the room: Men, as a group, are stronger, bigger, faster and have greater endurance than women as a group.”
Clearly these sexist shit lords should be canceled for suggesting that women can’t do ANYTHING that men could do.
Of course, the United States military seems to be morphing into more of a an affirmative action agency, rather than retaining its original purpose – to go places to break things and kill people who threaten our way of life.
And for those folks who support women in combat, but not THEIR daughters, I would suggest that they be careful what they wish for; they might get it.
(Personally, I would support universal conscription with a 2-year tour of duty for every Young American when they turned 18. Not necessarily into the military, but into some form of public service so as to foster national identity).
My father always argued that every young person should go through basic training to learn self-discipline and what they could accomplish if they pushed themselves to their limit.
I agree with your father, for what that’s worth.
As a nineteen year old Navy enlistee who had been raised on an Idaho cattle ranch and still had the cowshit on my boots to prove it when I arrived at boot camp in San Diego in 1979, boot camp taught me more about human nature in general and about myself in particular than any other life experience, before or since. Boot camp taught me that we humans are a mixed lot, and that the color of a person’s skin matters not at all. Boot camp taught me how to work together with people with vastly divergent backgrounds from my own in the furtherance of a mission outside of ourselves.
I agreed with him too (and you), and even more so now than back then.
Service equals Citizenship.
-Heinlein
Fortunately, they also discriminate against the elderly.
Women should be required to register for the draft, the same as men. That being said, some points:
About 75% of all people who show up at the recircuiting station are unfit to sign up. This is mainly due to being overweight, but drug use and other issues factor in. So if you are drafting from a similar pool, you will probably get the same results.
The people who are grunts today are volunteers, You must volunteer for Infantry and the standards are getting higher all the time. Today’s grunt is at least the equivalent of a WWII commando\Ranger according to some writers. The guy that fights best is the guy that wants to be there.
Soldiers are made, not born. It takes considerable time to be able to get competent as a soldier\Marine in combat arms. Not only do you have Basic training, but follow on schools, training with the unit, etc. You cannot “wish” a Spec OPS guy into being. Some writers have said it takes five to six years to get Spec OPS fully trained.
Yet again, Steve, FOCUS. Your first sentence was the only one on point, although it contributed nothing because you gave no reasons and addressed none of the issues. And if you feel the need to write the rest, there’s always reddit awaiting the balance your wisdom, but not here.