Sign the Petition: End Draft Registration Once and for ALL!

7 Comments

1. 

   David Berrian on February 26, 2019 at 11:07 am

   As a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War I fully support ways for anyone to avoid military service. However, I also believe having a draft of all young men and women is an important way to keep the US away from engaging in war. It was the draft that forced me to make a choice about my own participation in war. It’s easy to be against war in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, etc. when all it means is showing up for a demonstration. When all young men and women are required to participate in war (i.e. draft not volunteer), then they and their families must recognize their risk and complicity. The efforts of drafted service men were key to ending the war in Vietnam.

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     Jeff Paterson on February 26, 2019 at 1:07 pm

     Hi David. You make great points and I know your view is widely shared among supporters of Courage to Resist. I’ll register my disagreement, briefly: 1) Mandatory conscription registration exists primarily as a “Plan B” for military adventurism and/or unpopular wars (otherwise, you’d have plenty of volunteers). As such, if you’re against war, you should be against enabling war, 2) If we say that we’ll support future war resisters, what moral authority would we have if we supported the laws that criminalized their acts of conscience? 3) Should we really make the present situation worse for some people, in the hopes that those people will rise up against that situation (that we helped bring about)?, 4) Why is it taken for granted that overwhelmingly older people feel justified in making these decisions and laws that only apply to young (18-24) people? If there’s to be a draft system, then let’s make sure it’s in reverse age order! I bet that would really spark some protest 🙂

2. 

   Jon Olsen on February 26, 2019 at 12:54 pm

   The Draft is human sacrifice, with the possibility of reprieve. Never again!

3. 

   Mary Roth on February 27, 2019 at 6:33 pm

   I totally agree with Jeff’s statement above. I did extensive military, draft & vets counseling, counselor training, etc. etc. from the Viet Nam thru Gulf War eras.

   A very widespread misconception is that draftees were the force behind GI resistance, which was one of the major factors in bringing the VN war to an end. But this is completely false. GI resistance was virtually 100% from enlistees. This was my experience with everyone I counseled – CO’s, AWOL/UA’s, every kind of GI dissenter or resister. And read the history of GI resistance – all enlistees. Check out the writings of David Cortright, who brought these facts to light. At the time I wondered why this was so, but it was the experience of other counselors nationally as well.

   There are many reasons for this & I’d be glad to elaborate.

   However, every time some liberal says he’s “for the draft” I sense the same manipulative reasoning which assumes that men (and maybe now women) are born to provide cannon fodder for whatever military adventure the govt. cooks up. “Manpower makes war power.” The draft is what brought you the Viet Nam war. It could not have been carried out w/o the draft.

4. 

   Jeff Paterson on February 27, 2019 at 8:26 pm

   The United States had an active draft from 1940 to 1973. It stop zero wars. The US war in Vietnam continued for two more years after the end of the draft. Someone recently told me that they favored the draft, from an allegedly anti-war position, because we’d basically be transported politically back to 1969! Yet the parents of most of the young people facing a draft in the near future were not alive in 1969. Young people will find their voices soon enough as old people continue to screw over Earth and pretend that mass shootings are normal. They shouldn’t have to face death in their schools here in the US, and then be forced to kill and die abroad too.

5. 

   eRIC hAMELL on February 28, 2019 at 4:09 pm

   It’s no accident that previously, a bill to extend conscription for women was introduced by a Member of Congress who didn’t want that at all but, rather, hoped to force a reconsideration of allowing women to serve in combat roles. He was wagering on the fact that we cherish women’s lives more than men’s — and he was right. Removing the discriminatory language from the current law, or simply ceasing to act on it since it’s been ruled unconstitutional, will make it much easier to mobilize opposition to mandatory registration, conscription, and any act of war-making because people don’t want to see women get killed.

   Someone I used to work with on an anti-militarist project told me that in the Vietnam era, he and like-minded activists had opposed the college deferment on the grounds that it was in effect an exemption for white, middle-class men. If it’s right to oppose an exemption for being racist and classist *de facto*, how much more obviously right is it to oppose one that’s sexist *de jure*?

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     Jeff Paterson on February 28, 2019 at 4:20 pm

     Yes, on this debate those of us who want to abolish mandatory conscription registration will have odd bedfellows indeed. Many rightwing religious types are already screaming about how this will undermine a woman’s traditional biblical place in the home, or whatever. Meanwhile, joining the Pentagon’s side will be liberals who believe that this will somehow recreate the spirit of 60’s activism and make the government “think twice” about waging war.