Selective Service

Originally Posted by OneHungryHippo

Who are they going to have babies with if all the men are fighting in the war? Why should women get free benefits just because they are women and can reproduce? Why should men be forced into a possibility of the army just because they were born with a Y chromosome?

thats what I dont get. So discrimination based on race, sexuality, or social standing aren't ok, but it is ok to discriminate because of the way your chromosomes are? If men can get yanked out of their homes and forced to fight, then women should be just as able, or else get rid of the draft altogether. This isnt the 50's where women were expected to be girly little housewives and men to be big strong guys. I keep hoping for the government to realize we're in the 21st century and some things are outdated but I guess I'm expecting too much.

I think men and women should both have to sign up for Select Service personally. If the nation is ever in such a state that it needs every soldier it can to stop the invading conquerors who have somehow managed to amass such a fearsome army that the US itself is shaking in fear, it needs all the men and women it can get its hands on.

However, unless China nuked the west coast and got its entire army teleported to the US, or somehow the Russians got Canada to secretly hold its entire army and then the Chinese came in through Mexico, there's no way this is going to happen.

However because of the US Constitution saying that Congress can maintain an army and navy (actual text: ""shall have Power To ... raise and support Armies [and] To provide and maintain a Navy" courtesy of Wikipedia) the US Supreme Court has always ruled it constitutional as the 13th amendment (according to Butler v. Perry) merely applies to slavery, not the idea of military service being compulsory.

Of course this could change if we get Supreme Court justices who oppose it.

Personally I think you should be able to say "I disagree with war on a fundamental level" and just not be in it. I also believe that you can get out of being drafted by it if you're in college.

Granted, anymore it's just an archaic thing that makes no sense. If such an emergency requiring it that was a threat to the US simply existing came up, I'm positive that more than enough men and women would volunteer.

While you do prove some slightly valid points, I feel that Selective Service is pretty much saying that men's lives are disposable. That it's okay for men to be forced to die, but since women can reproduce, it isn't. Of course assuming these soldiers don't make it out, and if they do, there's a large chance of trauma. It really is terrible.

You dont have to register, its done for you now by the millitary, I got a letter saying that I had been registered a few days before my birthday.

The good news is that there would have to be a massive war for the Selective Service act, and WWIII wont start anytime soon, so we're fine.

Plus, they give you a free razor man. Now that's a deal!

Originally Posted by mattj

Plus, they give you a free razor man. Now that's a deal!

I don't shave. Just trim.