A news article over the weekend explains that certain “lawmakers” are “leading the effort to allow all Americans ages 18 to 25 to be included for registration with the Selective Service System.”
To “allow”? And “to be included”?
The allowance and inclusion mean “at gunpoint” . . . by force of law: the expansion of compulsory draft registration to women, in addition to men, does not mean that lifelong dreams could finally come true. After all, military jobs are already open to women who want to serve . . . voluntarily.
Young men have long been required to register for a military draft upon punishment of prison for refusal . . . even though President Reagan, who enforced the law post-Vietnam, acknowledged “The draft or draft registration destroys the very values our society is committed to defending.”*
After praising “the brave women who have volunteered to serve our country,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) argues that “volunteering for military service is not the same as being forced into it, and no woman should be compelled to do so.”
He’s right there.
But neither should men be so compelled.
And Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have introduced an amendment to the NDAA that would end draft registration completely for “all Americans.”
“The real question now,” as Jeff Jacoby wrote incisively in The Boston Globe, “is whether anyone should still be required to sign up for the draft.”
The answer is easy: No.
The All-Volunteer Force has been a huge success. Free Americans have and will defend our freedom.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* I know about those precious values as well as about the penalty — 37 years ago today the FBI showed up at my door. And not for coffee. For my refusal to sign a draft form, I spent more than five months in a Federal Correctional Institution (and yet still go around in error from time to time).
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