Selective Service Registration

Discussion in 'In the News' started by Don Alaska, Feb 25, 2019.

  1. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    For quite a while, I have had the belief that requiring only males to register for the Selective Service has to be unconstitutional since it is blatant discrimination based on gender. Although I really don't think women have a role in real combat, that belief has been made a moot point since Obama opened all aspects of the military to women. He did nothing to change the SS however, so women are still not treated with equality. While it is unlikely that the draft will be put in place, men are punished if they don't register for the draft within 30 days of their 18th birthday, but there is no such requirement for women. There is a case working its way through the courts that claims that either women should be included in the registration, or the registration should be done away with. The suit has had its first favorable ruling.
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I agree. The obligation should accompany the right.
     
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  3. Lulu Moppet

    Lulu Moppet Veteran Member
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    Registration should be done away with. If the government wants you, they know how to find you.
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Yeah, it does seem unnecessary.
     
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  5. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    I’m still of the opinion that all men should have to serve at least 2 years in the military and report directly after graduating high school ( or of that age).

    On the female registry thing I am flipping coins on that one. The most positive thing I can write is that yes, if women want to be totally equal then they should have to register just like their counterparts.
    That said, I can think of at least a dozen reasons why, with the possible exception of back line duty, I really do not like women in the military at all.
    From physical inequalities to physical distraction, there’s a myriad of reasons why grabbing a bunch of females from a list just because they registered for duty isn’t a good idea.

    Maybe we should abolish the registration as has been suggested but, what if there is a need for the draft in the near future? Lord knows we almost tanked during the heavier times in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Heck, we were deploying National Guardsmen and the Reserves and for all I know, we still are.

    No, for right now, I’m going to suggest that we leave well enough alone and if there does come a time when we need females to go to war, we can legislate that when the time comes.
    In the past wars, women did what they were supposed to do: Build stuff so able bodied men could continue to fight. Without women in the factories, winning a war would have been much more difficult to do.
     
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  6. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    I just hate to see 18-year-old "men" have register, and if they don't, they are barred from student loans, Federal jobs, etc., while women suffer no such burden. I don't like women in real combat, but I think they do a fine job in medical areas, supply and logistics, and even flying aircraft, although I am not convinced that they do as well as men in fighters, especially off carriers. Co-ed ships are terrible except hospital ships and aircraft carriers, where people can get away from one another. I am glad there were no women on ships when I served. I think all-female crews of smaller ships and boats could be fine, like the minesweepers and some of the facility craft. It has been mentioned that should we have to go into Venezuela, there could be "real" combat, the likes of which we have not seen since Vietnam, or, perhaps, Desert Storm, with conventional units meeting conventional units, instead of rag-tag terrorists with IEDs. I just can't picture most women being able to tote 70-pound packs for miles through the jungle and mountainous terrain.

    I generally agree with @Lulu, that the entire registration thing should be done away with, although "universal service" with a 2-year commitment for everyone would be great. The only down-side would be that Progressive nonsense could be pounded into their inductees' brains during that two years.
     
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  7. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    We could do with some of that here in the UK...no-one needs to register or be called up for service in this country...

    My ex husband and I married young, just as he joined the Navy ( voluntarily), he went in a boy and came out a man... ... and ever since, I've been of the opinion, that every able bodied person over the age of 18 should be required to carry out a minimum of 2 years national service...

    The snowflakes in this country would be crying back to their mothers...(in fact the equally snowflake mothers would be crying at their poor likkle babies having to work for a living)
     
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  8. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    I wish none had to face war. The military is a way to teache and prepare young people for the future.
    The womans movement has made it clear they want to be equal...so they should have to serve just like men- even combat.
    You take a menstrual female aong with her moodiness, bloat, ill fitting bra and a kid or two....a brigade of these women- might could clear the field before the sun goes down;).
     
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  9. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    National service wouldn't necessarily have to be military. The national parks need work, as does much of the infrastructure. People who didn't want to serve in the military during times of peace could be used to renovate buildings, build trails, and even repair bridges with proper oversight and training. Those who served would then all have some kind of training that could be put to use and serve both themselves and their country into the future.
     
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  10. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I don't know, Don, @Don Alaska I haven't put much thought into this subject but, I have, I suppose, held the belief that war is a man's game. Now of course that was before all this equal opportunity stuff came along, and some of it is good. When Obama opened up the military to women as he did, I disagreed with him, and think I still do. In the military a woman's job should be confined to nursing and administrative, rear echelon duties. I still think that.

    I used to think it'd be good if all young men would have to pull two years of military service. Now with the voluntary army I'm not so certain. It seems to be a sure thing the US is going to use the military somewhere in some kind of war, we're hell bent on it. War seems to be in our DNA. There was a time we could be patriotic about going to war. I don't think that's true anymore not when we get involved in every little Tom, Dick, and Harry skirmish that comes along. We are too much involved in shoving our way of life down some body else's throat. Our way of life and our form of government is not for everybody and by now we should damn well realize that.

    Going to war shold be a last resort. That decision is far too important to trust to a decision like that to any president. And we should not go to war unless the Congress of the United States declares war on another country. Now we go to war or talk about going to war like we used to treat running down to the corner grocery and buying a pack of cigarettes. I probably wouldn't be opposed to a eighteen year old serving two years, even a female, but using those young men and women at someone's whelm, is another matter. And if something like that was enacted, no one should be excluded, certainly not politicians. They children should be in the thick of it so they know what's going on. If we go to war, we should go to win, and we shouldn't go haphazardly. I could then support a two year subscription of our young people but regardless of opportunity and responsibility, I could not support a women's role in combat, regardless of what future wars look like.
     
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  11. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    @Bill Boggs I don't think we disagree on this. I, too, believe that women should only be in support roles, and that that men are more adapted to combat biologically. I have brought this up before, but I listened to a speech given by a woman who was a security consultant for the NRA. She had served in front-line areas during Desert Storm, and apparently was a fairly small-statured woman. She stated that we have believed in "Fight-or Flight" for generations, but new research has shown that only men have that instinct. It has only been relevant to the male in the past, so all research has been done on males. This woman stated that women, probably due to evolutionary imperatives, have a "Fight-or Hide" instinct instead. Women can fight like fury, especially in defense of their children, but, if overwhelmed, tend to seek a hiding place rather than fleeing. This might have been due in millenia past to the fact that they could not out-run the male attackers, especially carrying children, and that hiding was a better option. Hiding doesn't sere well, particularly on a modern battlefield, with infrared detectors and persistent occupation. The woman who gave this speech was herself convinced that women shouldn't be in combat, even though she had served near the front line. Her story was that she was a truck driver supplying the troops ahead. Her truck developed a flat tire due apparently to debris in the roadway. She had a spare, but the tire and wheel to the truck (according to her) weighed around 200 pounds, and there was no way she could change that tire. She said it would have been difficult for a man, but was impossible for her. She had to wait in a vulnerable position beside the road to be rescues by another truck that eventually came along. She stated that convinced her that she didn't belong there.

    Another thing I have brought up before was a statement by a woman working on the "Eve Project": Men are designed for short, brutal lives, while women are designed for long, miserable ones."
     
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  12. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    So where do we disagree?
     
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  13. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Sorry I read your last post wrong @Don Alaska. My goof-up.
     
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