With very rare exceptions, every man residing in the United States 18 to 26 years of age is required by the Military Selective Service Act to register with the Selective Service System, and thereby subject himself to the possibility of involuntary military service. Yet, even with the war in Iraq, the prosecution of which may require millions of U.S. military personnel, absolutely no woman in the U.S. is required to register. This clear fact of gender discrimination has not been focused upon in public discussions, I believe, because an active draft has not been in effect since 1973... http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:1ffls42dC_oJ:www.eagle.american.edu/print.cfm/119/5/4334 http://www.counsel.net/chatboards/equal-rights/topic36/1.05.03.14.38.48.html
I dont think anyone should be involuntarily conscripted into military service, we should all have free choice about fighting in a war, however if the government chooses to conscript people then gender should not be an issue, women wanted equal rights and with that comes equal responsibilities.
They haven't used the draft for the war on terrorism, but they have kept people in the military involuntarily up to a year after their time was supposed to be up. Volunteer for the military and you can't leave until your time is up. Then, we can keep you even longer even if you don't agree to it. Sorry for trolling. I voted for the last choice, as I think it would be a good indicator of whether the people want to fight for a cause or not by how many volunteer to join in time of 'turmoil' and decide to stay.
This question is so old here in a country where draft is normal, i voted no to draft as i dont belive that's the way to do it, hell there should be no need to draft anybody in the first place. Why have you added you own biased opinions to the poll, polls are suppose to be free of opinion and bias.
The large majority of women of draft age in the US are Brittany Spears clones. Not exactly, but you know what I mean. Its still in to be a girly girl, and frankly I think someone of that lifestyle is unsuitable to serve in combat in the military. Our entire culture would need to change to alter this, muscular women are not considered beautiful, women are supposed to have manicured nails and long hare, big breasts and slender smooth figures. A heck of a lot of them aspire to that sort of ideal, and that sort of person just isn’t going to be of much use with six weeks of training after being drafted. Since suitable women are more rare than potentially suitable men, women should remain on a volunteer basis. If you think about it its really the mens own fault. If we had been lusting after strong independent women instead of waify sheep then we would have a few more suitable women, now wouldn’t we?
Why should men be drafted though? I live in England so i dont have to worry about being drafted as it doesnt happen over here, but i agree with that fact, its voluntary over here, if you dont wanna be in the armed forces you dont have to be, i know plenty of people who would refuse to fight if they could be drafted. Everyone should be drafted or nobody should be drafted, gender isnt an issue. What about the men that arnt suitable for the armed forces, can they be drafted? and can women that are suitable for combat be drafted?
Because someone needs to carry all those guns and wear all those uniforms we have committed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t, Americans are pretty sheepish, if they are told to do it, they will. I’m coming from the perspective of graduating college right about when the draft is probably going to start back up. I don’t want to be drafted, I only registered for the draft because I would end up in prison if I didn’t, I had a roaring fight with my parents about this. I also have a sister. No one in my family has great physical prowess, but if I have to tell them that Ill go and fight for them so they don’t take my sister ill do it. (Of course I know this is a stupid argument, their thirst for troops might very well become larger than I expect, and if they already feel just fine and dandy about drafting me, who knows how safe my little sister will be?) But no, I do not believe that everyone should be drafted if anyone is drafted. I hear tell that there are a lot of medical conditions that can disqualify you from the draft. I know I’ve got something that could disqualify me for the draft, though I don’t know if I would use it, it would be amoral to get out of service because I am gay. Of course its amoral to draft me in the first place, but I would feel like I have a responsibility to other people who get drafted. I’m going to guess that its just easier to let the ones that can serve volunteer, rather than hunting them out. As it is, in America, I don’t think a majority of women would make good cannon fodder.
My moral stance is that we are all equal and should be treated as such, woman can carry equipment and fight as well as any man (wasnt that the whole point of the 1910s women wanting to be treated equally?) fair enough if you'd rather you were drafted than your sister (i'd rather it was me than my g/f) I just dont think america is short on manpower/womanpower and drafting people doesnt seem necessary. Dont get me wrong me and most of my mates would volunteer to fight if we were needed, but everyone should be allowed that choice, also women wanted equality, equal pay, equal rights, I think that comes with equal responsibilities, they are equal for everything but cannot be drafted, seems somewhat unfair on the part of the men. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
My opinion is that so long as we have the selective service, then women should also be compelled to sign up. As far as the issue in general goes, however I'd hope greatly that they do away with it, an army of conscripts is just trouble all around. You can train people and put guns in their hands, but what CO would want a man who doesn't want to be there and doesn't want to fight for the cause under his command? I certainly think that that sort of thing would increase the rates of unplanned incidents greatly. Vietnam seems to have showed us that pretty clearly. Other reforms I'm in favor of would be allowing women to fill combat roles, and eliminating double standards for physical fitness. Yes, I know that in general men and women are built differently, but it's my opinion that we should have one standard for the sort of condition we want our fighting men (and women) to be in, and stick with it. If that disqualifies more women than men, and makes for a male dominated military hierarchy then so be it, being fair doesn't have very much at all to do with maintaining an effective military. Though to be honest, women in combat roles do pose certain hygienic difficulties which should certainly be addressed in some way. How to do that, however, I have no idea, women are largely a mystery to me.
I am going to eventually be a full time front line engineering officer in the RAF, i'm curently an officer cadet studying my communications degree. I know for a fact from my involvement with the Raf from an early age (Cadets and onwards) that girls rastically reduce the effectiveness of a unit as insted of working as a team it is the tendancy for the group of males to try to out doo the others in impresing the girls... this may only be a tanage cadet phenomenan, but giving orders to girls when marching will earn a SNCO a slap for "being rude and shouting" even though they are buisily talking to their neighbour. Admitedly this is only the cadets, but the same drastic reduction in performance is also noted in my time as an officer cadet thus far... attempting to show off can make the team as a whole less effective. So drafting women into any military unit is a foolish idea... BUT this is a highly sexist veiwpoint, i am going to balance it by saying, there is no reason other than useless preconceptions and pre conceved mindsets to say that women cannot make good soldiors... they have all the potential, ie legs arms and eyes, all they need ot do is have the will to use them. I refer again to my opinion that mixed front line units are a bad idea... why not simply have femail units of infantry? engineers? Amoured crews? why can't that work... it may seem like sepratism, but in a combat situation if a woman in a group of men gets injured will it effect the judgement of the group? its something that i can't posibly predict as to what will habben, Answers on a post card?... i hope i have not confused you or myself in the course of this rant but mixed units are suicide in terms of military efficiency...
I don't think women should be drafted , they should be left to talk sense to the men starting the war in the first place.
Well, I'm not for a draft. It should be voluntary, as I think anything else goes against our basic freedoms. While there is a draft, both men and women should be draft based on ability. The argument is that women simply aren't big enough to fight, but I know women that scare me more then some of my buddies that joined up. Not all men are cut out to be in combat positions. Some women are. Deciding based on sex seems an outdated and unefficent method.
If I could be sexist for a second, I dont think that females would work in the armed forces, because most of the types of females I know of who I would want defending me are giant lesbians, and as we know, thats not acceptable in the army. Though I do know one former coworker who last I heard from was a private first class in the army
I didn't vote because the choices were so obviously biased, but my opinion is until women make up a decent percentage of representatives in the legislature and the defense department and until there is a female president, women should not be drafted. In other words, if as a group you have no say in whether or not your country goes to war, why should you be forced into the fight? And yes, the logic follows that minorities and the poor should also be left out of the draft. American wars should be fought by upperclass white men.
Come on now, we all know which gender is more aggresive, violent, and should do most of the fighting. MEN! I admit there are women who'll slice my belly for saying what I am saying, but most of the ones I know haven't killed a single thing in their life. I'm not saying one needs a murderous demeanor in combat, but it sure helps.
hahaha. you people can be funny. i know plenty of women who can rip a person's insides out with their barehands (myself not excluded-i'm not what you'd call "dainty"). i also know some men who are so soft they couldn't stand up to a child kicking sand at them. i object to the draft on so many levels, but if we are to have it, draft anyone who is able to fight. many men wouldn't pass but there are enough women who could to fill in for them.
Von Axel - Good post. If male soldiers allow their “efficiency” to be diminished by the women amongst them, they should be court-martialed the same as if they disobeyed any other order. Women shouldn’t be excluded from the ranks just because men can’t follow orders or because their superiors won’t bring them up on charges for it. Given that soldiers must follow orders to kill people even in an offensive war, certainly neither should they be allowed to alter their behavior around female soldiers, which in an ideal world (not ours) would take less effort.
