Selective Service: Should It Select Men and Women?
My story from earlier today about the courageous women of the Caracal Battalion in the Israel Defense Forces brought another topic to mind: Should women be required to register for Selective Service — the draft? Representative Clarence “Burgess” Owens (R-UT) thinks so. In 2021, he introduced H.R. 5392 "To amend the Military Selective Service Act to allow women to elect to register for the draft." I agree with him — to a point. The first section of the bill reads as follows:
The Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. 3801 et seq.) is amended as follows:
(1) Section 3 (50 U.S.C. 3802) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: (c) A female citizen of the United States, or other female person residing in the United States, who is between the ages described in subsection (a), may elect to present herself and submit to registration pursuant to such subsection.
Here's the part I disagree with: If we are going to have a draft, then women shouldn't be allowed to "elect to present herself and submit to registration." What government does for (or, in this case, to) anyone, it must do for everyone, or it must do for no one. That includes the involuntary servitude we call Selective Service or the draft. If men have to register, so should women.
With that said, I’m not in favor of allowing women to serve in combat arms units. My wife, who had a military career spanning eight years and has a Bronze Star among her effects from that service, agrees. Women, as a rule, simply do not have the strength, endurance, and tolerance of trauma that men do. There are also hygiene issues involved in having women in the field for prolonged periods, and in combat, there is also the issue that men will do reckless things to protect women. Deny it all you like, but that’s a fact. I’d have damn little time for any man who wouldn’t take risks to protect a woman. As I said in the Caracal Battalion story:
It is important, however, to examine this as a broad policy and not to focus on the exceptions. My colleague streiff documented some of the difficultiesof women in strenuous combat-arms roles in a story that is now a few years old but no less accurate. As a quick summary, though, we can point out that men average 40 percent of body weight in muscle mass, compared to 30 percent for women. Men have significantly stronger bones, larger lung capacity, and larger hearts. Men can withstand more serious traumatic injuries than women while retaining more function. One shouldn't overlook one other inescapable cultural aspect of men in Western civilizations — that is, men will take more risks to protect women than they would other men.
But since we do have a Selective Service law, and since the services are now assigning women to traditionally all-male branches like Armor and Infantry, even though I disagree with those assignments, then fine. If you want that, you have to take all that comes with it, including a draft in the event of a major war. What government does for anyone, it must do for everyone, or it must do for no one. This doesn't require allowing women in combat units; many occupations require objective standards, including standards of strength and endurance and, in the case of the military, mission capability.
Personally, I would be in favor of doing away with Selective Service altogether. In our era of a high-tech, modern military that requires a fair amount of training to make soldiers proficient, two-year conscription isn’t really enough time to produce a troop that is technically and tactically proficient. Further, the big advantage of a volunteer Army is that we have people who are serving not by order but by choice. Early in my own career in Uncle Sam’s colors, there were plenty of NCOs and officers who remembered what it was like dealing with draftees, and to a man, they never wanted to go back to those days.
But equal treatment under the law means just that – equal treatment under the law. I’m still not in favor of putting women in combat arms roles. But that doesn’t mean, should circumstances call for it, that we couldn’t conscript them into other roles, freeing up men to serve in combat. If we’re going to have a Selective Service law at all, then yes, it should apply to both sexes.
Israel, of course, faces a different strategic situation than we do. Israel is a small country, surrounded by enemies, and faces extermination if they do not maintain all the military might they can muster. Women are required to serve a term in the Israel Defense Forces just as men do. The United States enjoys a much happier strategic situation, and there is no need for American women to serve in direct combat roles for which they are not ideally suited.
Draft — if we are going to have one — yes. Direct combat service in infantry and armor units — no.
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