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Q&A: The Draft

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This is a question that’s hard to answer without going into specifics of a particular country or situation. If we are talking, for example, about a war where the existence of a nation is at stake, then yes, everybody should fight.

Other than that, I don’t think it’s justified. The only reason to do it at a time when there’s no invasion is to take another step in the direction of genderist fantasy that denies physiological differences between men and women. I’m an old-school feminist, and I have no patience for this silliness.

So if there’s an actual, dire need, then yes. If there’s no need other than to posture, then to hell with that.

7 responses to “Q&A: The Draft”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    This question is not hard to answer. If women want all the rights of citizenship, then they must also accept all its responsibilities.

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    1. methylethyl Avatar
      methylethyl

      So… in the US, we should give up the vote, and the ability to be on juries, or be subject to the draft?

      This is not what our country came to an agreement on when it extended the franchise to women, and for the overwhelming majority it is not controversial. I think that in a representative/republic sort of governmental arrangement, this arrangement being amenable to all but a tiny minority, it is fine, and any argument for changing it, without swaying voters on the subject, would necessarily be an argument against representative democracy.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        According to this logic, anybody who can’t serve should be stripped of citizenship rights. People in wheelchairs, for example. Or children. Or the elderly. Or people in crucial jobs who never get drafted and so on.

        Nothing is simple and can be solved with a primitive formula.

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        1. methylethyl Avatar
          methylethyl

          That, too! It’s an odd sort of logic, though certainly not a new idea. Heinlein explored it in *Starship Troopers*– I did not think anyone took his thought-experiments in political economy seriously though.

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          1. Avatar
            Anonymous

            For the record, if we are attacked by giant intelligent spacefaring insects, I’ll be in favor of everyone getting drafted to fight them.

            (commenter formerly known as AcademicLurker)

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              True. Especially after being attacked by a swarm of cicadas who apparently really love my hair color, I’m all in for everybody joining the defense against insects.

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  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “where the existence of a nation is at stake, then yes”

    It also depends on the default state of the country. If young men are expected to have compulsory military service then some kind of compulsory service for young women (not necessarily) makes sense.

    When it gets down to combat you generally want to keep women out of it as far as possible…. so that women are more in support positions not on the front lines at least partly to free up men (more dispensable) for the fighting positions.

    Though it’s complicated since often the front comes to people as much as they get sent to the front…. and drones now hit positions well behind the front…

    No super simple answers though “no women should never be forced into any kind of military service” and “treat men and women exactly the same in the military” is a fool’s dichotomy and anyone who espouses either extreme can/should be ignored (politely if possible).

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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