Drafting Women

While browsing through Newsweek the cheap person’s way (it’s free online), I came across Anna Quindlen’s column, in which she posits that in this day and age, it is wrong that only young men need to register for Selective Service. (Selective Service is the list of young men that the US government keeps should it become necessary to reinstate the draft. All men 18-25 are required by law to register. Among other things, they can’t get any college loans until they do.) Her argument is that if women expect equality, then along with their privileges, they gain duties as well. Women have served successfully in the armed forces for a fairly long time now without the things that were feared coming to pass, such as disruption of fraternal bonding or chivalry causing men to do stupid things.
Should women register for Selective Service if they are between the ages of 18 and 25?
Although I’d have to register if the law were changed, and I really really really don’t want to be drafted, I think that her argument is persuasive. But I’m not of a military background. Would the mass inclusion of women in the military in the event of a draft somehow be more disruptive or otherwise hurtful to the military than the current rate of about 12%?
[sub]My first GD![/sub]

Yes, if women are allowed to serve in the military (damn right they are!), then they get to register for the draft, too. Equal rights, equal responsibilities. That’s pretty much the end of it, as far as I’m concerned.
-Ben

I agree, required military service should not be based on gender, any more than it is based on race, religious affiliation, etc. Since our country has progressed so far in giving equal rights to evertbody, we need to give equal responsibilities as well.

-Another Ben

Besides, we need y’all. There’s some ass kicking to do, and we know you chicks can kick ass.

AHunter 3: What’s wrong with similes that you want to disable them? THat will take a bit more work than just writing a rule, since they’re a part of the language. Similes, metaphores, what’s next? Pluperfect verbs?

I agree also. I read Quindlen’s column a couple of days ago, and I thought she made a good argument.

Yeah, maybe on TV.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of girls who can kick ass, but there are a lot more that can’t. I can’t imagine a platoon of 40 women would be as effective as their male counterparts in every possible way.

There would have to be restrictions.

It’s one thing if a father is drafted into the military, it’s another if the mother is drafted.

I don’t support the war or the draft, and will likely kill myself by setting myself on fire during a flagburning accident should they instate a draft.

But I still felt like saying something.

Why is that? Is loosing a father in war somehow less tragic?

By the way, I hate self-righteous flagburners so if you choose to set yourself on fire, feel free to borrow my lighter.

Vanyel, I only want to disable similes in certain seleced posts. It’s like turning off Dolby? for some of the recordings that you’re doing. You wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but you like the option of doing so.


Enable similes in this post

A decent platoon commander or tactician from a higher vantage point (for that matter) deploys resources where they are most effective. If I were on the front lines and the continued survival of my ass depended in part on someone listening to a barrage of field reports from many sources, many of them conflicting, many of them coming in simultaneously, attempting to describe enemy locations and/or attempting to describe available munitions and the locations of launchables and who was last where, and interpreting all of that so as to call in the drop of a tactical device on top of the enemy folks on the hill I need to get by, well…

…I’m not saying a guy might not be brilliant at it, but I’d hate to think that the possible deployment of folks like Brenda, who handles peacetime communications in my employer’s front office, had been discounted on the grounds that she is female!
(Then there is my ex-housemate Marcia who could carry a tractor on her back uphill on muddy terrain in a thunderstorm, but that’s another story).

Well, it’s probably reasonable to assume that the women who would actually be serving are the ones that can. At least I hope so.

being physically unfit, incapable of even lifting 45 lbs, and arthritic finally has an upside. Girl or not, I’m still a wimp! :smiley:

Or maybe the women can serve in the 90% of the military that is never expected to fire a weapon outside of a firing range. Hmm?

I’m an artist, not an accessory to murder. :frowning:

Alessan, do you mean that women should be restricted to non-combat positions (like in the Israeli military)?

No. I’m saying that fighting capability is not the alpha and omega of military service, as some other people here seem to think.

As for women in combat roles, I like the way the IDF seems to be going - pilots, MAGAV, etc. I’m willing to accept anything that works, but I don’t think a military force has any obligation to be fair rather than efficient.

At least one of the jet pilots flying missions into Afghanistan is a woman. And women are effectively performing all the service roles onboard the carriers that men serve.

There are more than enough duties in which the genders are equal to justify women in the draft.

As for a father vs a mother being drafted? If they are both eligible, give them a choice as to which one serves. But obviously don’t take both.

What? I can’t edit my posts? :frowning: Darn-it.

Well … to supplement my last post. Give the father & mother first choice as to which will serve. If they don’t want to make that choice then let the service decide which will go based on qualifications.

Good idea if they are willing to adhere to the same rules as the men , an example was a few years ago in the UK airforce a female officer trained to be a pilot and after 1 year training she left to have a baby wasting about £600,000 MOD money , which men simply cannot do ,

also they have to rewrite EU military rules (when they implement them that is) as it was suggested that in any mixed sex units when ever a female member of that unit is injured the entire unit has to surrender (which is nuts)

but then women are slightly on average shorter which allows them to pull more Gs in aircraft , just dangerous if they get shot down over hostile nations