Military Draft

Uncle Sam Wants You, To Kill And Die For The Empire

June 22, 2024 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! History, Military Draft, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

The United States ended conscription, the military draft, in 1973. The all volunteer military came about because of mass protest over the Vietnam war. Richard Nixon believed, and not without reason, that opposition to the war would wane, and his re-election chances would improve, if young men didn’t fear being called up for service. The draft was becoming more and more unpopular, as activists raided draft board offices and young men burned their draft cards. In so doing they forced the issue which led to the end of conscription. But it was not long before a different kind of draft re-emerged. In 1980 under pressure from the Iran hostage crisis and an election campaign in which he was painted as being “weak” on defense, Jimmy Carter enacted a Selective Service system which required young men to register for a kind of quasi conscription when they turned 18 years of age.

Uncovering The Long History Of Hostility To Conscription In The US

December 6, 2023 Arnie Alpert, Waging Nonviolence. Educate! Anti-War, History, Military Draft, Recruitment, US Imperialism, Vietnam War, Wars and Militarism

It is common knowledge that free speech has legal limits in the public square. What may be less well known is that the famous Supreme Court ruling — refusing protection for “falsely shouting fire in a theater” — dealt with opposition to World War I and the military draft. The case centered on Charles Schenck and Dr. Elizabeth Baer, Philadelphia socialists, who distributed 15,000 copies of a leaflet titled “Long Live the Constitution of the United States,” arguing that conscription was illegal. Coming three months after President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill creating a military draft, the leaflet said conscription was a clear violation of the 13th Amendment banning involuntary servitude.

Defending Ukraine’s Draft Dodgers

April 12, 2022 Dave Lindorff, This Can't Be Happening!. Educate! Military Draft, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

Back in 2015, when I was driving from Kuopio Finland up to the country’s far north to write an article on global warming and how it was affecting the Sami indigenous people of Lappland, I found myself offering rides to a number of Ukrainian young people, mostly male, or males accompanied by girlfriends, who were fleeing the civil war in their country, which saw Ukrainian forces, including the fascist Azov Battalion, shelling and shooting at ethnic Russians in the two breakaway oblasts of Donetsk and Lugansk. These young people of draft age all told me they were fleeing their country to avoid being drafted to fight in a war against their countrymen in eastern Ukraine, a majority Russian region of Ukraine. “I have nothing against those people in Donbas,” one young man told me, “and I don’t want to be forced to kill them and get killed myself.”

The Draft Has Been Expanded To Women

September 3, 2021 Edward Hasbrouck, The Practical Nomad. Educate! Congress, Military Draft, Wars and Militarism, Women

Today the House Armed Services Committee joined the Senate Armed Services Committee in voting 35-24 to expand registration for a possible military draft to include young women as well as young men. Following today’s House committee vote and an earlier Senate committee vote in July (before Congress’s summer vacation), the versions of the annual “must-pass” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to be considered later this fall in both the House and Senate will include provisions requiring women to register for the draft within 30 days of their 18th birthday and report to the Selective Service System each time they change their address until their 26th birthday, as young men have been required to do since 1980. An alternative compromise amendment to suspend draft registration unless the President declared a national emergency and put the Selective Service System into standby was submitted before today’s committee session, but ruled out of order on the basis of arcane PAYGO procedural rules.

Expanding The Military Draft Is Not Feminism.

August 25, 2021 Danaka Katovich, Truthout. Resist! Military Draft, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Nearly 3 million women in the United States have been forced out of the workforce due to coronavirus-related issues. Unwilling to provide solutions to the very real issues that everyday people are facing, Congress has instead found a way to suck more resources into the war machine: expanding the draft to include women.

Four Reasons To Ditch The Draft

April 27, 2020 Rivera Sun, World Beyond War. Create! Congress, Military Draft, Wars and Militarism, Women

There’s a bill before Congress to expand the military draft to women. It’s a terrible idea. Here are four reasons why: It’s not about “equality.” Some say drafting women is only fair; after all, men 18-25 must register for the draft. Shouldn’t women? The answer is no. It’s not equally fair, it’s equally unfair. Gender equality and fairness means freeing men from military conscription, too. Real equality means abolishing the military draft for everyone, once and for all. Drafting everyone (regardless of gender) is not a solution to the “poverty draft.” Frankly, if a draft were enacted, poor people (who often don’t have college waivers like the ones used initially during the Vietnam War) would still be fighting the wars, they just wouldn’t be getting the same incentives as in the “All Volunteer” Force.

On International Women’s Day, Say No To Drafting Women – Or Anyone!

March 8, 2020 Rivera Sun, World Beyond War. Resist! Feminism, Military Draft, US military, Women's Day

March 8th is International Women’s Day. It’s a day to work for women’s equality in all sectors of our world. Yet there’s one peculiar effort toward fake equality that must be vehemently opposed by feminists of all genders . . . drafting women – or anyone – into the US military. On March 26th, the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service will issue a recommendation to Congress on whether to expand the US military draft and draft registration to women – or abolish it for everyone. Their report is several years in the making, and was triggered when the male-only US military draft and draft registration was ruled unconstitutional by the courts. On March 26th, we’ll discover whether they think women’s equality means having to live in equal terror of the scourge of the military draft, or if they have the rare foresight to assert that people of all genders should regain/retain their freedom from conscription.

Draft Registration Will Be Either Ended Or Imposed On Women

February 28, 2019 Staff, Davidswanson.org Create! Military Draft, Women

A choice must now be made. It is officially unconstitutional to discriminate against 18-year-old women by not forcing them to sign up to be forced against their will to kill and die for Venezuela’s oil or some other noble cause. Yes, the fine U.S. judiciary has declared for-men-only Selective Service registration to be verboten. That’s not to say there isn’t debate on the matter. One side holds that women should be treasured as the delicate witless pieces of property they are because the Bible says so, and therefore they must be kept out of war entirely.

Just Say “No” To The Draft

May 29, 2018 Cindy Sheehan, Women’s March on the Pentagon Resist! Class Struggle, History, Military, Military Draft

The US Congress has commissioned a “bi-partisan” panel of 11 people to study the future of a military draft in the United States. Since the beginning of forced conscription in the US (Civil War), a military draft for that war and subsequent wars has been highly unfair and class biased. For example, in the Civil War, conscripts could actually purchase the way for someone else to take his place. For every war during the 20th century, draft avoidance, resistance, or “dodging” has been practiced. During the US war crime in Vietnam, 2.15 million US troops were deployed there and at least three-quarter of them were from working-class or poor families. However, we all know the stories of former “deferred” war hawks like Dick (Five-Deferment) Cheney, Bill Clinton, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, Trump, and Mitt Romney and sub-par humans like George W. Bush being allowed to join an elite (safe) unit to avoid the carnage.

Just Say “NO” to Forced Military Conscription

May 25, 2018 Cindy Sheehan, Women's March On The Pentagon Educate! Military Draft, Wars and Militarism

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