If the Equal Rights Amendment had been passed, women would already be registered. The anti-feminists (led by Phyllis "it's not rape if you're married/conservapedia" Schlafly shot the ERA down, siting the SS requirement as one of their reasons.

/the more you know

Lionel Mandrake: Hey, the military needs cooks and dishwashers, don't they?

/ducks
//if men gotta register, then women should, too

Seriously, as a woman, this is interesting. I have seen "men's rights" supporters (i.e. against alimony not child support) get eviscerated on Fark in the past. Has this view changed? We don't live in a world where women are incapable. I think if selective service becomes mandatory then many things need to be re-examined.

I'm okay with this. Since women now have the ability to serve in combat positions, and other nations already require them to serve, I have no problem.

MaudlinMutantMollusk: Hidey-hidey-hidey-ho!

/and is there a draft registration now?
//again?
///still?

You still have to register for the selective service at 18. There's no reason women shouldn't have to register now.

lohphat: MaudlinMutantMollusk:

Hidey-hidey-hidey-ho!

That was beautiful,thanks!

After the recent women in combat thing, they will have to register along with the rest of us.

No getting around that.

iaazathot: GAT_00: MaudlinMutantMollusk: Hidey-hidey-hidey-ho!

/and is there a draft registration now?
//again?
///still?

You still have to register for the selective service at 18. There's no reason women shouldn't have to register now.

I agree, and we should do away with any deferments that aren't medically qualified. As soon as the rich kids have to start dying at the same rate as poor kids, then the chickenhawks will stop engaging in wars for profit.

A volunteer military has real advantages over a military made up of people drafted essentially against their will. The draft should be an act of desperation (and yes, it should include women).

However, requiring everyone to serve their country regardless of economic status, sex and race has some advantages as well.

Ideally, we should have a universal service requirement in which the military is one of three options: military, Americorps or Peace corps. Deferments for college and professional schools would allow the programs can take advantage of new doctors, lawyers, dentists etc.

Of course, no one will be willing to pay for that, even if the recipients receive minimum wage + housing or something. Maybe the real answer is to go to a guard draft, and expand the roll of the guard to include even more domestic service than it already does in the name of "homeland security".

GAT_00: MaudlinMutantMollusk: Hidey-hidey-hidey-ho!

/and is there a draft registration now?
//again?
///still?

You still have to register for the selective service at 18. There's no reason women shouldn't have to register now.

I agree. They wanted combat roles as part of equal rights, then they have the right to get drafted as equally as males.

Inevitably, however, as in the past, there will be times in the future when America will be faced with the question of whether we need to place thousands of our young men and women in harm's way. When that time comes, I hope all of America will be forced to stop and think twice about it.

Yeah, the draft did a GREAT job of keeping us out of the clusterfark that was Vietnam ...

NewportBarGuy: doyner: Yes and no. If we had the draft, and it included women, then more of the country wouldn't be so complacently complicit when the next Congress rubber-stamps the next Dubya's bullshiat war of choice. It could cost a swing state or two--enough to at least give pause.

Oh, and it would mean that more people in the country would understand how meaningless those stupid yellow-ribbon magnets are.

You're more optimistic than me. The kicker of those f*cking magnets, for me, was seeing them on several cars in the barracks parking lot. Yes, they put them on their own cars. Brilliant!

I say we do compel women to register if they are now eligible for combat MOS assignment. That's fine. Just seems so outmoded. I went back to the SSS website to check out when I signed up. 1996, 13 days before my 18th birthday. I still volunteered 8 years later. They didn't really need me in the system.

I guess I'm more referring to the scope of war these days. If we ever did get attacked on the scale that would require a draft, I just don't think we'd have the time to conduct one, and train the people to get ready.

I don't think we really want or need a draft Army. We should be looking at cutting the force back even more, not adding to it. We can do a lot more with less these days than any time before. Occupation? Sure, we need more people, more MPs etc etc etc... However, after Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan have shown us, maybe for one goddamn second we'll realize that the tactic of grab and hold is not a good one. Just unleash the Army to kill people, break sh*t... give them the keys and a lovely parting check.

We don't have the numbers to do occupation, we're never going to have the numbers, and it's just a bad idea.

/Forgive the ramble...

I hated those stupid magnets, but I would become verklempt when I saw a car with a real satin ribbon bow tied onto it. Or a nicely maintained yellow ribbon on a tree (my neighbors did this when their daughter's fiance was in.) The magnets are an example of throwing money to the wrong group to send a message, whereas if you take a ribbon and tie it outside your house it seems more authentic to me.

Everyone's mileage will vary.

the selective service is rather silly. but if we have to have it, chicks should sign up to

Lsherm: doyner: Oh, and it would mean that more people in the country would understand how meaningless those stupid yellow-ribbon magnets are.

My wife's family is all army - one retired LC, one active LC,  and two PFCs currently on active duty.  They appreciate those ribbons, so they aren't meaningless.

They appreciate meaningless trinkets, which you claim then give them meaning?