When Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently announced his decision to open all direct combat positions to women, it was hailed by women’s rights advocates as “historic” and long overdue.
On the other hand, critics more concerned with combat readiness than equal rights for women lamented the decision as short-sighted and wrongheaded. Notably absent at the announcement was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Apparently, he had serious reservations about the policy change and had recommended against it.
Without passing judgment on Carter’s decision, I do wonder why he rejected the advice of military experts in the Pentagon and beyond. As I recall, exhaustive tests conducted by the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines have repeatedly shown that mixing males and females in direct combat units results in reduced combat effectiveness.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for equal rights for women, including women in combat, but not at the expense of combat readiness and combat effectiveness.
Carter’s decision raises a larger and more vexing question: “Should women now be required to register for the draft?” I say yes and here’s why. If women are to have equal rights in the military, then they should accept equal responsibility. And that includes the responsibility for registering for the draft.
Otherwise, what we have here is a clear case of gender discrimination. The current Military Selective Service Act dictates that practically all men in the United States who are between 18 and 26 years old must register for the draft, most within 30 days of turning 18. And that includes non-U.S. citizens living in the U.S. today, for example refugees. However, women remain exempt from the long arm of that law.
Changing the current draft law to include women will, of course, require an act of Congress. Typically, both parties in Congress are loath to act on anything controversial, especially during the “playoffs” for president, one-third of the Senate, and all of the House of Representatives. Instead, most of them prefer to pontificate, posture, and promote themselves for still another term or two in Congress.
Therefore, they’d rather French kiss a cobra than act decisively on the issue of including women in the draft.
Still, fair is fair and right is right. Women are now going to get their long-awaited opportunity to compete with men for elite direct combat positions in the military. Hence, I believe they should have to register for the draft, just as most men have to do.
By the way, we haven’t had an active draft since the Vietnam War era. Barring a major national security threat to the USA that would require massive mobilization of the American population, the draft is likely to remain dormant for the foreseeable future.
However, that’s no reason for Congress to dilly-dally on the draft for this gender issue. It deserves discussion, debate and a commonsense compromise that is fair to females and males alike. Retired Army Col. Thomas B. Vaughn can be reached at tbvbwmi@blomand.net.
