Drafting daughters to fight America's wars

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This will go nowhere. But hey, isn’t this what no gender people want? On the plus side if there were a draft there would be a down tic in abortions by draftable women.
 
I often wonder if a draft is even viable anymore. That said, today’s military has tons of non combat jobs. Given that so many don’t really qualify for service due to health reasons (1/3 of 17-24 adults are obese). I’m sure drug use and other health issues further shrink the pool. If guess about 50% of draft age adults are unfit for various reasons, so It’s not inconceivable to include women if a draft was on the table.
 
The current law is that all men in the U.S. are required to register with the Selective Service System within 30 days of their 18th birthday.


If women had been drafted for WW-I or WW-II, the public reaction would probably have been so severe as to cause it to be canceled. Today, the possibility results in a shrug.
 
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I would think that obesity is one ailment for which the military has an effective cure.
 
Without medical supervision ~8 lb a month is the max safe weight-loss rate. That’s a potential 6+ month delay in getting a conscript ready.
 
The Marines had a separate platoon for those who were unabn to physically make it through basic training. The physical conditioning platoon would help get them into shape then transfer them back to regular training.
 
I propose to end selective service for both sons and daughters.

We’ve been at war for almost 20 years. We haven’t needed it.
 
Israel is a rather unique case, being historically surrounded by enemies who outnumber them, have attacked in mass in previous wars, and started out with a rather limited population.

It is unfortunately not enough of a controversy in my opinion. I am not a pacifist, but I believe that fighting a war should be the responsibility of men. It is barbaric to expect women to do our fighting unless one’s country is faced with an existential crisis. I would say that Israel was face with such crises in the past when they adopted the policy, at this point it is just a deviant normality for them.
 
F_Marturana said:
I propose to end selective service for both sons and daughters.

We’ve been at war for almost 20 years. We haven’t needed it.
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We haven’t needed it only due to the nature of the wars. We haven’t needed 6 million + men under arms to topple an isolated Iraq regime or to fight Poppie farmers in Afghanistan. There were more divisions in any one battle in WWII than exist in the entire US Army today. The next time we find ourselves in a war with another competent nation state and it doesn’t go perfectly, we will need the draft. Think Korea, where the guys there are nothing but speed bumps while we mobilize, and they know it.

More generally: The judge’s reasoning in this ruling is logical as far as it goes, but it is tied up in the “men and women are litterally identical in every way” line of reasoning. I don’t see a draft of women being particularly helpful, seeing as the purpose of a draft is to increase combat roles and fill losses. The exemptions would, I imagine, be pretty extensive as somebody has to take care of families and jobs at home in event of a war, and on average the vast majority of women do not equal the vast majority of men in physicality. Never in the whole of human history has it been the primary role of women to fight in war and I don’t see why that should change now. Technology does not render the physical demands of combat obsolete- to plan a war on the idea that we don’t need physically ready troops will lead to disaster. In my opinion this push for women in combat is an idealistic thought experiment that will come crashing down when we fight our next major war. We are not Israel, completely surrounded by hostile powers with a need to have every citizen ready to fight off an invasion intent on the utter destruction of our people. And even the Israelis limit their women’s combat exposure. You will also note that Israel has conscription. Should we be a nation of conscripts too? Long story short, IMO forcing women and girls to register for a draft sounds cool from an equality standpoint but doesn’t really add anything to this country’s ability to mobilize an effective army and would be detrimental to society as a whole.
 
Oh, I’m not so sure.

I remember growing up in the 1970s and thinking certain classmates were fat. Now when I look at our old yearbooks, those “fat” kids look tiny compared to what “normal-weight” kids look today! And all the rest of us who were “skinny” look skeletal!

Fat kids back then were merely a few pounds over the rest of us–perhaps ten or twenty extra pounds.

But today, a large percentage of teenagers (I’ve heard figures estimating anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the teens) are very much overweight, often carrying an extra hundred pounds or more! When I drive by my old high school, I see teen boys and girls who are barely able to walk–their thighs rub together (the chafing must be horrible) so much their alignment while walking is impaired, and they are huffing and puffing and red in the face. And their faces and necks are pendulous–they have triple and quadruple chins. Comparing them to me (5’8" and 220 pounds), these kids look like they weigh 300 pounds or more.

I know the military can get people in shape, but these kids have “morbid” obesity, not just TooMuchTV Chubbiness. Basic training would be dangerous for them.

That being said, I think that it’s fair for men and women to sign up for the Selective Service. There are plenty of non-combat roles that people can play in the event of a war.
 
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I think public reaction would have been severe because without the women, who would be left to work in the factories to build the stuff needed to fight the war? Elderly people? Or children? I certainly wouldn’t want to be flying the plane that a child or a nursing home resident had put together.
 
I just hope that if they do conscript women to do the combat, that they start with those chiseled-ladies who apparently live at my gym and who have muscles on top of their muscles and can climb ropes and run for miles, and who live on Greek yogurt and couscous and purified spring water.

Meanwhile, my 220-pound body is sitting on a recumbent bike burning a whopping 100 calories while trying to convince myself that my throbbing, creaky arthritic knee isn’t going to break right off during my big half-hour of “working out.”
 
I think much of that is anecdotal. Sure we are fatter. But girls in particular are also more active. Participation in organized sports for women has skyrocketed. And while McEnroe may indeed be correct about Serena Williams not being ranked in the top 300 of men, I’m quite certain that Everett and Navratilova would have been crushed by most of the players today. Same in basketball. There was no WNBA back in the day and at the Olympics records fall like rain. Women dominate soccer in this country and dare I say it? might beat the men. Add to that technology and nutrition that would be used even in ground level action in the military and you while you may have a heavier fighting force, at that young age (draftable) you almost certainly have a healthier fighting force.
 
The women would absolutely not beat the men. The women’s team is very good, but just because the men’s team can’t crest the hump against countries where men’s soccer is the dominant sport, doesn’t mean they couldn’t beat the women. The speed and pace of the game is totally different.

You may dismiss this as anecdotal, and it is, but when I was in high school our girl’s team was very good and went to the state championship game 2/4 years I was there, winning it once. A girl friend of mine on the team was the top recruit in the region and went on to play D1 collegiate soccer. The boys team was good but never made it through the state playoffs during that time. For fun the girls and boys team used to scrimmage each other. The boys team wiped the floor with the girls team and so we would play a man down to even it up a bit. It wasn’t super serious competition but the difference in athleticism was obvious.

If we followed this logic through and eliminated girls sports and boys sports and just let the “best players” play in one league, women would be virtually eliminated from competitive sports. It’s just a fact.
 
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Lol. I don’t know much about soccer because it’s a women’s sport my girls play. But let me tell you a story. I played football and basketball in college. I’m not good at either especially basketball. After college a co worker of mine had a sister in the WNBA. After relentless ribbing of my co worker about women’s basketball I asserted that I, a collegiate basketball player, and a man could beat his sister one on one. I really believed it. Just by sheer physicality I should beat her. I had about 4 inches and 100 pounds on her. We bet our entire paychecks on the game. And our whole company was on the sidelines. I was right, I was physically dominant, knocked her to the ground a few times and she bled. True street ball.

She beat me 21-8.
 
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