Re: ERA War and the Draft

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Agreed women should be drafted a mans life is not worth more
than a womans-did a paper on this in college. why do you think
Americans have not pushed to reform the SSA?

On 1/05/03, Dave Behrens wrote:
> With very rare exceptions, every man residing in the United
> States 18 to 26 years of age is required by the Military
> Selective Service Act to register with the Selective Service
> System, and thereby subject himself to the possibility of
> involuntary military service. Yet, on the eve of war with
> Iraq, the prosecution of which may require millions of U.S.
> military personnel, absolutely no woman in the U.S. is
> required to register. This clear fact of gender
> discrimination has not been focused upon in public
> discussions, I believe, because an active draft has not been
> in effect since 1973.
>
> The United States Selective Service System offers on its
> Website a short history of the draft with respect to women.
> The primary reason given for non-registration of women is a
> twenty-year-old Supreme Court decision, Rostker v. Goldberg,
> 453 U.S. 57 (1981).
>
> Simply stated, this decision says that since all men
> registered with the Selective Service are considered combat
> replacements, and since Congress forbids women to go into
> combat, women should not be registered. Of course, this
> reasoning is absolutely absurd, since it presupposes that
> every man called for involuntary military service will be
> used exclusively for combat, and that no man called will be
> used for the approximately 90&37; of military jobs which are
non-
> combat related.
>
> Twenty years after Rostker, the Uniformed Military Training
> Service Act (H.R. 3598) attempts a draft reformation by
> shortening the length of involuntary service, but still
> perpetuates gender discrimination by maintaining the
> requirement of involuntary service for all males registered
> under the Military Selective Service Act and exempting
> absolutely all females.
>
> Some questions arise as a result of these blatant facts of
> gender discrimination:
>
> 1. U.S. women enjoy the same civil rights as U.S. men; they
> comprise 50.9&37; of the population and18.8&37; of all
military
> personnel. Why is the pretext of a ridiculous Supreme Court
> decision used to exempt the majority of the population from
> even the possibility of involuntary military service in any
> capacity?
>
> 2. Should women be permitted to vote in elections for
> candidates who may have to decide on war for our country, in
> light of the facts that women will never serve involuntarily
> in any military conflict and that even females who do
> volunteer for military service are exempted from life
> threatening combat jobs?
>
> 3. Title IX demands that proportionately gender-equal funds
> be used for all school-based activities that receive any
> federal funding, including athletics. Many schools have had
> to abandon male team sports that earn revenue in excess of
> their costs and which aid in the preparation of males for the
> teamwork and organization of military service, in order to
> provide gender-equal funding for female sports which
> perennially lose revenue. Yet there is no requirement for
> females to utilize the skills and strengths learned on the
> athletic field and the classroom in the military defense of
> their country. Should Title IX continue?
>
> 4. Do equal civil rights for women obligate women to equal
> civil responsibilities?
>
>

Re: ERA War and the Draft, 10/14/05, by S.

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