On Wednesday the House Armed Services Committee approved a measure, narrowly, that would require women to register for the Selective Service which enables them to be drafted into the military if a draft is ever called.
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Since Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened up all military combat roles to women earlier this year there has been increased pressure to treat women the same as men, as equals since they would now be “equals” within the military. This is despite a big movement to ease physical standards for women, compromising the overall integrity of combat units.
Current law requires all men between the ages of 18 and 26 to register to be involuntarily drafted into the military through Selective Service program. Women have not had to register for the draft because not all military positions were available to women.
Congressman Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California and Marine who served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan introduced the measure as a way to get people talking about the issue but did not think it would pass. But more Republicans than thought voted in favor of it.
The vote was contentious and only passed with two votes, 32-30.
[See the first ever U.S. Army female infantry officer here]
Hunter previously said that the Selective Service was “sexist” and wanted to make a conversational point about the sexism by proposing this measure.
However Rep. Hunter has said that he opposes the idea of adding women to the draft. He’s also opposed to opening infantry and special operations positions to women.
The last draft was in 1973 and no one across the board sees a draft actually happening so a lot of this fight is over a lot of the political correctness that has paralyzed the military and created sub-standards for different classes of people – jeopardizing the integrity of core combat units.
Congressmen Heck (NV), Gibson (NY) and McSally (AZ), all also Iraq War veterans support including women in the draft and Selective Service.
Military Times noted that there is a lot of scrutiny coming down on the Selective Service System as well. It costs $23 million a year and a recent report questioned whether the service can actually even provide a list of people, draftees, who have signed up with it.
We will see where the measure goes from here.
Leave a comment below letting us know if you think women should be drafted.
