Posted on 05/17/2016 11:11:35 AM PDT by smokingfrog
Buckling under conservative pressure, the Republican-led House Rules Committee pulled a legislative sleight of hand and stripped a provision from the annual defense policy bill that would have required women between the ages of 18 and 25 to sign up for a military draft.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said in a statement Tuesday the action was taken to prevent what he called a "reckless policy" from moving forward without closer study of its impact.
"I have the utmost respect and deepest appreciation for the young women who bravely volunteer to serve our country, but I am adamantly opposed to coercing America's daughters to sign up for the Selective Service at 18 years of age," Sessions said.
The Rules Committee wields substantial influence over legislation before it moves to the House floor. The full House planned to start work on the bill on Tuesday. A Senate bill does include a version of the provision, so the congressional debate over whether women should register isn't over.
Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, criticized the committee move, casting it as an attempt by Republicans to avoid subjecting "their members to a vote on equality for women, and they ought to."
(Excerpt) Read more at fairfieldcitizenonline.com ...
Allowing gals to volunteer for those clerical roles, as in World War II, both in America & Britain, would have the effect that you suggest. Drafting—that is forcing them into those positions is to repeal a chivalric code that has brought out the best in men for over 1,000 years.
It is a wrong perception that women who remain home and raise the next generation of diplomats, statesmen, ministers, missionaries, as well as soldiers, are less patriotic.
Never should a Christian family which teaches Biblical admonition consistently to the children have to worry that the women folk will be forced to violate their Christian convictions, just because even many conservatives (like yourself) have fallen headlong for modern feminism.
It’s not sophistry as you claim it is the law and Selective Service is not a draft. If a draft were conducted a large percentage of those registered for Selective Service would be exempted from the draft. From students to those considered unsuitable for service or due to hardships many would be exempted. The draft itself could exempt women with an amendment to Title Code 10. What is wrong here is not excluding women from registering for Selective Service, it is REQUIRING men to register. Selective Service itself needs to be eliminated, it is outdated and discriminates. I am all for equal rights, therefore stop forcing men to register in order to receive federal benefits or be eligible for federal employment while exempting women. A male between 18-25 cannot apply for employment as a minimum wage store clerk at a Base DOD store if he has not registered with selective service. But a woman 18-25 can apply for that same job with no requirement to be registered. It is about discriminatory Selective Service laws and penalties not drafting women. The GOP Congress again took half measures, either eliminate Selective Service or force women to met the same standards as men when applying for federal benefits or employment.
Duncan Hunter sponsored the provision.
"“Right now the draft is sexist,” said Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), who filed an amendment to the House’s annual defense authorization bill to require women between the ages of 18 and 26 to register for the Selective Service"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/04/28/women-could-be-headed-for-the-draft-after-house-committee-vote/
Duncan Hunter served two tours in the sand box. While he is a typical California Republican, he is not a moron. He speaks as one who served in todays Marine Corps.
Well I would freaking well hope so. John McCain came up with the insane idea. We don’t need women registering for the draft. Its a volunteer army anyway.
>Don’t want to register for the draft? Then don’t register to vote. This would solve a lot of problems.
Drafty Motor Voter (DMV)....I like it /s
We can always argue the merits of drafting women if and when that time comes, but registering for the draft does no harm, and bestows a sense of responsibility. It also treats 18 year old men and women equally under the law.
Oh shut up you are as bad as McCain.
It is a wrong perception that women cannot cope with the rigors of military service, or that somehow drafting single women for non-combat roles will somehow destroy the family home, any more than forcing fathers to abandon their families would.
The idea that political societies should fight nature in this way is cut from the same Humanist cloth as Nimrod's adventure at Babel; as the Communist & Nazi experiments in monolithic tyranny in the 20th Century. Just whom do we suppose will benefit from this arrogant attack on traditional Western values? Certainly not the young women who came back from Iraq, minus limbs!
/bingo!
>Enough already! It is time to end this nonsense that men and woman are the same. If every eight year old knows that boy and girls are different then we adults should be able to do the same. Not only should we not require women to register for the draft we should also get rid of Title IX and all the other “Civil Rights” laws that force everyone to treat men and the women the same. They are different; live with it!
So, because women ARE different, we shouldn’t get rid of the (illegal) CRA, Title IX and the like?
Sorry, you can’t have ‘equality’ and expect a tiered enforcement of the Law. We should be showing the logical end-game of the Leftists lunacy. “You want ABC? Well, it comes with X, Y and Z too.”
Nor do I read/hear/see ANYONE calling for drafting women to the front lines; there are PLENTY of positions behind.
Instead, we have (R) caving...as they always do. Can’t even have a teachable moment w/out some GOP taking an extra shot of Midol.
That is precisely what is wrong with it! An 18 year old woman is ordinarily equipped to be a mother; to bear children; to nourish children; to use her feminine instincts to be a functional Blessing to her family.
An 18 year old man is designed to be a father; a provider; instinctively & physiologically far better equipped to be a soldier: and if he accepts the higher standards for male behavior, equipped to be a true Blessing to his family.
The compulsion to pretend that all of us are equal is not a rational Western idea. Equality among either sex at Creation is not an attribution of equal aptitudes, equal functions. What Jefferson was referring to in the Declaration Of Independence was the natural law refutation of the "Divine Right of Kings"; certainly not some fantasy about equality of the sexes.
Sadly, there were a number here on FR that "thought" it would be a good idea to "teach the activists a lesson". They never bothered to think about how that attitude played right into the Left's trap.
Absolutely! (Besides, if you have a skill that the military might need at a moment's notice -- say, you're a surgeon or a nurse -- the gov't can find you in a nanosecond!)
The local draft boards could be empowered to make exceptions for individual cases as they did during World War I & II.
Mama with children? Report to the local armory while they are in school and pack bandages, mess kits or whatever.
Preschool children? You are deferred until they are in school.
Old fart like me with a gimpy back? Nothing to stop me from doing clerical work and the like.
Back around 1970, that idea was tossed around. Girls in jr. high said they’d get pg first. Mind you, that was still in the days that unwed pg was shunned. Imagine what percentage would get pg today. Of course, today, they’d time it where they’d first test positive the second day of bootcamp so they would get all the gov freebies and not have to do a thing.
Then ban all women from serving in the armed forces. If they can serve voluntarily, they can serve involuntarily.
If the cannot serve involuntarily, then they cannot serve voluntarily.
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