Feds’ hands in Selective Service an omen?

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2014-07-29 22:48

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s also interesting to consider that despite all the requirements that the armed forces provide more equal opportunities for women soldiers, there continues to be no requirement that women register with Selective Service.

Equal rights would suggest that if the draft were reintroduced, women would be subject to being drafted and forced to serve in whatever capacity the military might dictate, meaning fewer men would be forced to serve.

This seems especially at odds with the Obama administration’s effort, announced in January 2013, to end rules that exclude female service members from direct ground combat.

No operation is mistake free and it’s understandable that federal agencies that deal with huge numbers are going to make the make mistakes that involve lots of people — but this seems just one more example of why so many are fearful when putting government in charge of more of our lives.'

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Comments

As for the ACA/gov't-run healthcare, it already exists and has for decades, though in partnership w/ pvt. insurance. Medicare/Medicaid, for example. Then there's VA medical srvcs. Just the biggies, those. So really, The Man already has a track record. The issue re hlth care is how would the gov't do *without* pvt. insurers (who process many if not all such claims and do the billing/payout-to-providers work) to handle the gritty details?

But aside from that, the point is, the gov't seems to have a renewed interest in making sure unregistered draft-age men are in fact registered for the draft. And of course, not making any moves toward requiring females to register under the same. Frankly, I'm surprised there hasn't been a limited draft already, but with the current admin'n actually cutting loose officers and enlisted ahead of retirement/hitch dates, I suppose it wouldn't make sense to draft -- UNLESS by cutting loose troops hired in at $X they plan to conscript and pay $(X-y) for the same MOSs. Slavery's typically cheaper than free labor, but not always. But in this case, it is. Loads cheaper.

Not a good time to be a 15-YO male.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2014-08-03 19:11

Matt, on the whole point, I agree that it is sexist not to require women to register.

But can I provide a different view?

Women now dominate (or are near to dominating) publishing, middle management, advertising, general practice medicine, real estate and so on. But all of these fields are facing a very dubious future. Also, they are working their workers the bone.

Meanwhile, on the upper end (engineering, programming, surgery) men dominate -- for those are aggressive disciplines requiring a kind of obsessive focus.

On the lower end (and apologies to everyone for I do not mean the word "lower" in the pejorative) - sanitation, oil rigs, foresters, miners, construction workers -- men dominate.

Then there is the middle, "ostensibly" (operative word) with no place to go: the military. You do your years there and (assuming you are not sent off to die), you come back with benefits and (now that the government is finally taking the health care of our veterans more seriously), health care benefits.

While I do love my career,I do have a regret for never having served. There is a sense of pride and comraderie that I lost out on. Not to mention the educational benefits. Right now, universities are falling over themselves trying to make it easier to educate the vets (the government is a cash cow for tuition). (And, for that latter, it remains to be seen the outcome of the collision course we are on: 1) welcoming the vets on campus vs. 2) hounding the men off campus.)

So, in one sense, I do not mind this selective service issues as much. It is a path to security for many men. In other words, most young men should join the military - get the friendships, the education benefits and the health benefits. Retire, go to college and leverage the veteran status.

But again, I do agree there is sexism here.

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Submitted by ThomasI on Sun, 2014-08-03 19:36