Before anybody loses it over this, I just want to remind everyone that there is NO POSSIBLE WAY the draft will ever come back. It was the WORST idea ever and EVERYBODY knows that.

If anyone says to you that so and so wants the draft back, they are merely trying to scare you into voting how they want you to vote.

Ive never heard of anyone who thinks the draft is a good idea.

AND! A bad economy is good for retention and recruitment, so I doubt recruiters are worried about making their numbers.

I voted other. It's not so much the idea of fighting a war that bothers me, since I think if women were drafted there would be major mobilization against it. Something about "registering" with the government makes me feel uneasy. If they're not going to draft me, why do they need all my information?

What Haus said....

ANd let me add that I am completely against women going into combat. for physical reasons, psychological reasons and and tactical concerns.

There are studies of combat missions where there was a woman in an infantry unit (in isreal) who got injured and the men lost it.

I'm against women in combat too but mainly because I don't like the idea of men and women serving in heavy combat together. Whenever you have high stress + men + women, its a recipe for disaster. Yes, we have women serving in this capacity now because pretty much everyone is doing something outside of their actual military specialty in this war, but we also have some of the highest incidents of sexual violence and suicides.

The most effective units are often all male units and I think a big part of that is the gender separation.

However, I would be open to the idea of an all female combat unit.

Haus- the question was about registering women for the draft, the same way men are registered, not whether we should have a draft. I agree no politician would ever institute the draft, unless there were a true emergency (ahem, NOT Iraq) because it would be political suicide.

That being said, yes, I argue loudly for equal rights for women; we should have equal responsibilities as well. Also, this technically has nothing to do with women in combat, because there are many non-combat roles that women could take. That being said, there is no "front line" in Iraq...

I don't know if I can fairly answer this questions because I very much do not want to be in the military. I don't have anything against serving the country, I just don't want to do it in a military capacity.

Liberty: "Something about "registering" with the government makes me feel uneasy. If they're not going to draft me, why do they need all my information?"

Men have to do it though...why would it make you more uneasy that a woman should have to do it rather than a man?

Snow - I hear ya, its just that whenever the topic of the draft comes up, there's always some people who just LOSE their MINDS!

And often bringing this up is a scare tactic used by the left to get people to vote for their candidates.

So I'm just usurping the invetitable person who will come in and comment "if you don't want the draft you better not vote for mccain!" haha!

If you think about all the other stuff the gov't knows about us, I mean drivers license, we have to register for social security, voting.... They already know everything about us! This is just one more thing in a long line...

Obama says he wants to double the size of the peace corps right? Maybe he will have women register for that and kill 2 birds with one stone??

You can make statastics say whatever you want them to. The high rate of suicide and depression could POSSIBLY have to do with back-to-back tours, extended tours and a majority of soldiers who don't believe in a war they're participating in, but let's go ahead and say it's because women are serving on the "front line" with men. Brilliant.

As a woman who served in a high stress field with both genders, I can honestly say that gender wasn't an issue. Get the job done. Do it right, do it safely... and then go have a beer. Half of the guys I worked with joked they didn't even know I was a woman until they saw me out of uniform.

I said 'other'. First of all, with the rate of VOLUNTEERS and career military people that we have currently, I feel it is unlikely (but not impossible) that we will ever even see a draft in the foreseeable future. But this is a toughie..one of those things that makes me glad such decisions are left to greater minds than mine . On the one hand, I am all for gender equality and in this day and age, if a man HAS to sign up, why shouldn't a woman? But on the other hand (and this may be because I am a 24-year old woman), I find it more than a little scary! Great poll, Citizen!

I do agree that we never will have another draft. It just won't happen.

That said, I really agree with Snowbunny. Women have fought long and hard for equal rights and with that comes equal responsibility. BUT, that would have to be qualified, because I too don't think it's a good idea to put men and women into combat situations together.

I don't believe in drafting anyone, male or female. But if you draft men, you should draft women too.

I wonder why anyone would say that there NEVER will be another draft - with what authority would someone back such a claim?

I have to emphasize that I hate the idea of having to join to military, but if women want equal rights such as equitable pay then a requirement for women to serve our country is a fair albeit unfortunate evil.

haus- I hear ya! I really thought for a while GWB=certain draft, but unless our country is under direct attack, I find it hard to believe a true draft would be reinstated.

Mykie- I guess I don't know too much about the military to know whether or not it would be a good idea to put men and women in combat situations together, but I do think there would be some way that women could significantly serve.

I think the only issue would be that obvs. a husband/wife with a house and family could not both be drafted, but I am sure if the time came, there would be a way to work it out so that at most only one parent could be drafted. I know the military doesn't allow single parents to enlist now as it is.

Hey snowbunny11! It doesn't make more uneasy since women have to do it, it just makes me more uneasy since I may have to do it. I would probably feel the same way if I were a man. Honestly, this is a tough issue... not sure where I stand, yet. Thanks for sharing all your points of views! Can't wait to read more!

No matter who is President there can still be cause for a draft. If our branches of the military (even the National Guard has been tapped to death) becomes over extended (say in Afghanistan and Iraq) and we get involved in another military initiative or mission.. say Iran or Pakistan.. we would simply not have enough soldiers to cover the wars and protect our homeland.

It may require a draft. In that case women do not necessary have to be sent to the front line but perhaps can assigned supporting roles and even be assigned to US stations to keep us safe here while we are fighting in other areas of the world.

Who knows what the future holds. Iraq has got to get their sh*t together so that they can self regulate and we can concentrate on Afghanistan and getting our soldiers home in case of an even larger threat.

Stephley- a true draft would pull members of society equally, there would not be such a high concentration of the poorer segment of our society. I think that if everyone felt this impact, and it was not just some abstract "someone is dying somewhere" for our country idea, we would only support a draft for a war where we truly needed it. And I think (hope!!) that that situation would be so incredibly rare, that it would only happen in a true emergency, in which case we WOULD need the draft.

My bf's brother runs a recruiting station in the midwest- so maybe to me it just seems like the Army is filled with farm boys and kids from Detroit for whom the Army is the best option. I mean, I live on the East Coast, and not too many kids from my hs joined the Army; most went to college. I just think that if a fairly uniform draft were instituted it would make more people question the validity of the war. I mean, I'm seriously trying to picture what would happen if my banker friends at Goldman Sachs were drafted.

I'm not arguing FOR a draft necessarily, just that I don't think us East Coast liberals would be so complacent about fighting in a war we didn't support if we were drafted.

They would set guidelines like they did for Vietnam and World War II.

You would have to meet the physical, mental and administrative standards established by the military services.

Draftees would be selected by lottery.

The first to be called would be men and women whose 20th birthday falls during that year. If necessary, they would be followed by those aged 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25.

But due to the "smart border declaration" and the "pre-clearance agreement" you can no longer dodge service by claiming you are going to college (you would have to report at the end of your semester if drafting during) and you can no longer move to Canada.

But you could still go before a board and claim conscientious objector status and attempt show that service is incompatible with your moral or ethical beliefs. Politics, expediency, or self-interest are not considered suitable reasons to avoid the draft.

I am sure they will make exceptions where is you are the sole caretaker of young children that a woman might be considered exempt or may be assigned to a base close to her location where she could serve here on the US.

It would be interesting to see what they would purpose.

Monday - I didn't mean to attribute all the problems with just men and women serving together, sorry if it sounded that way. There are many factors that go into those problems, but I do think having men and women in combat together is one of them.

Snow - I understand that line of thinking, but its just incorrect. Often times people say the draft would be an equalizer but if you look at the actual make up of the military you find that its mostly white kids and when compared to society as a whole, the military has a higher % of high school and college educated people than the civilian world does. More people in the military between 18-24 have some college vs. in the civilian world.

Are women held to the same physical standards as men, the same marksmanship standards, that sort of thing? Because if they are then yes, they should be treated equally and drafted equally. But if their standards are not the same then I don't think they should be treated equally. You have to be able to carry wounded soldiers out of battle, right? I might be able to drag someone a ways but I certainly couldn't carry anyone. And I'm for women's rights but equal treatment should also correlate to equal standards.

A "true" draft, Snow - not like the Vietnam era draft that allowed people like Dick Cheney to stay out of the military with five deferments because he had other priorities.

piper - as far as i know, yes, they are held to the same standards. i think the only one that might be less is the weight standard since men typically weigh more than women.

Like Bill Clinton draft dodging "true" draft?

Yeah, Piper like Clinton, Cheney and all the other politicians from that era who didn't serve.

I'm guessing there is no valid authority for the no draft ever again claim.

Gotcha - since you only mentioned Cheney, I didn't know if you knew about Slick Willy.

haus- well, white people can be poor. And since the white race is the majority in the US, it does not surprise me that many people in the military are white. Many of the people in the military who have college degrees get them once they join; in fact it is an incentive for them to join because they do not have many other options. I am not trying to denigrate our military, but I think it is hard to argue that wealthier, more educated people do join because they have so many other options that do not make them risk losing their lives.

I can't out my bf's brother, but he wins national awards for his work in recruiting, and he has explained their selection process in depth to me, because I was considering joining. He recruits heavily from people who have no other great options. These are people who come from low-income families, and whose parents are not highly educated. Of course, there are programs like ROTC, but even these use the incentive of an education in order to compel people to join the military.

Steph- I can only assume that a future draft would correct for these problems, it is hard to make an argument for or against something based on possible abuses.

If, God forbid, there was a draft, I do believe that women should be drafted as well, but they should also be assigned according to how they perform and their capabilities, and the standards for evaluation should be the same (excepting weight, which someone else pointed out).

If women ( me included) want equal pay in the workplace as well as other things then they should also want to step up and make the sacrafices men make i.e. the draft. This is not to say that women don't make tons of sacrafices in this world i.e. pregnancy/children etc.

The Vietnam draft was such a horribly run sham. I actually talked to my father about that this weekend. He told me that he had about thirty guys in his dorm room to listen to the birthday selections on the radio. His birthday was the 20th called. One of his friends there had the first birthday. The biggest mistake made with this draft is that the tiles were just stacked from Jan. to Dec. no mixing was done. So people from about Sept. to Dec. were just about guaranteed to go if they didn't have a deferment. Luckily, all these guys were in college and having their birthdays called made them super students. My best friends father wasn't so lucky. He graduated from college in a field that didn't allow deferment. I asked my dad why he didn't just go into grad school. My father said that just wasn't as common then and neither were scholarships. It was such a horrible time. I can't imagine what would happen with this generation if they had to face this. I just think the fundamental differences are too large between the two. I don't think this one could handle it. I would much rather have men and women who choose to serve this country. Who have what it takes. Most of the younger generation is too soft.

I agree GS, about the younger generation being too soft.

Piper23 I think the "physical standards" are a little different i.e. when you are in basic training the pull up standard is different. However the marksmanship is the same. Which is odd because when I applied to the Sheriffs department I had to pass ( which I did proudly ) the same physical agility test that the men did. I also like the idea of "segregated" by sex combat units because it's sad to say but I do think for the most part it's men who have issues with serving with women. All to often the "protector chip" in some men's brain goes off. Like when I played High School football and the first time I got hit ( a really light hit ) , the guys on my team fought the other guys.

Your Dad would have still had to report to duty under todays standards. They removed the college loop to escape the draft. He would have just had to show up once the semester was over.

I think the draft would change wars in this country. If all the congress and senate and house of representatives, CEO's, rich little MTV sweet little sixteen participant trust fund babies had to show up and serve..boys and girls, men and women.. It would be a game changer.

I would have loved to have seen the Bush twins get straightened out by a tour of duty.

I would also bet that then Vets would actually get their medical benefits approved, their education bills passed, etc.

As a guy and a feminist, I think women should have to do it as well. Fair is fair. No sense in holding back priorities to our nation by basing this exclusively on sex.

haus, it's a touchy topic for me... Sorry if I was overly snotty. I don't think it's right that we base whether women should be in combat on men's inability to cope with it. Learn. Adjust. If the opportunity to move past it is never available, then it will stay the same. Women can offer a completly different perspective on combat situtations. One that, in my personal opinion, could make many missions more effective.

But once/if a draft does come into play, and all sexes have registered...don't hold your breath that it'll be fairly and evenly distributed.

Bush twins straightened out? They were spotless compared to most college students.

Mondaymoos,
I agree but men and women are wired diffrently and I just can't be sure all men can "adjust" and I think partly because of that wiring women should be drafted because of what you said, however I dont' think that mean are just going to turn of the "protection chip" in their brain because we wish it so. Yes women get paid less but society as a whole it protects women in a sexist double standard way. Look at all those women teachers who molest their students that get little to no time, we all know if the roles were reversed the male teacher would be doing hard time. Women who committed "crimes of passion" also get less time if a man was to kill his wife in the same passionate manner who would be doing more time. So we can't just change the views of those men, but women as well.

Oh, trust me, bastylefilegirl, I'm not arguing that there aren't massive changes that need to be made to areas outside of the military as well. I think we use sexism when it's beneficial to us, and rant about it when it's not. Either way, it's wrong.

The bush twins needed straightening out? Parenting from the sidelines and wishing these girls into harms way is wierd.

Snow - While I respect your opinion and your source of info, I have to still disagree with you. According to the Defense Manpower Data Center, only 11% of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25% came from the wealthiest quintile. As far as race, the percentages are in line with the racial makeup of the country, however African American recruitment is down and Hispanics are also underrepresented.

You know those damn Bush twins, teaching school in Maryland, getting married!, working with UNICEF! how DARE they!

Now Jeb Bush? his daughter needs to stay in rehab for awhile.

Noelle Lucila Bush graduated from Tallahassee Community College in 2000. On January 29, 2002, according to a police report made public via The Smoking Gun, she attempted to “fraudulently obtain a prescription” at a Walgreens Drug Store located in Tallahassee, Florida. The attending officer, Mark E. Dent of the Tallahassee Police Department, ascertained that Bush had telephoned the pharmacy using the name “Noelle Scidmore” in an attempt to obtain Xanax.

Scidmore....ahahahahahahah.

haus- I think we agree. I said that it was likely there would be many white people in the military because there are many more white people in America, white people are the largest part of the populace. At no point did I say the military was mostly made up of minorities. I said that the military heavily recruits people who do not have many other opportunities, generally because their family is not wealthy, and they either did not excel academically in high school or they are using the military to get money for college.

If you just use common sense, you will see why the military (guns, violence, and unpopular war) would be more appealing to people who do not have many other options. Obviously some wealthy people join the military and some who excelled in high school do as well. My boyfriend's family is pretty wealthy, and 2/5 of the kids joined the military. They were both the ones who did the poorest in high school, and for whom college was not an obvious option, and it was join the military or work at Burger King until they figured out what to do. The one in recruiting has a very high rank now, is very decorated and makes a good deal of money, had a wonderful family, and just finished his MBA. The other has his PhD, a wonderful family, and is a tenured professor at a major research university.

I think people get touchy when you say things like, "the military recruits poor and uneducated people," but its not some huge judgment against the military, it just makes sense that the only people who are really going to want to risk sacrificing their lives and four-six years of their salaries are people whose options are Target or Burger Kings; not Goldman Sachs or Skadden. Especially when a war is so unpopular. Now, I hope to join the military when I graduate from law school, AND I'm obviously an "east coast librrruuul" so not every person is going to fit into this stereotype.

But with a draft, you would get some of your bankers, trustafarians, more liberals, and more people for whom there are other options to join.

Again, I am not ADVOCATING a draft, I'm just pointing out why I think it is pretty unlikely that another one will be instituted, unless there is an emergency.

Omg....holy long post!! Oopsss! Sorry!

I think before women can serve in the military in the same capacity and distribution of men (if there ever was a draft) we must deal with social and psychological issues first.

There are situation where males play "protector" - this makes us weaker, we need to get rid of this mentality and get the majority of soldiers to treat the minority females like they do everyone else.

Sexual abuse within the military and by enemies (who tend to be 99% males) is also a big negative for having women serve in the same capacity. Women are more prone to being sexually abused, and that sort of abuse at enemy hand especially could be not only dangerous for military operations but for moral.

So...while I support women being having the same opportunities and duties in their country, I do think some practical considerations hider such an approach. War is about winning, war is about coming out alive - if these obstacles sacrifice those objectives then maybe having differences in the capacity of duties and opportunities in one's country is okay.

Isn't one of those Bush twins a badass? I think it's the bigger one. Jenna? IDK. I don't know anything about them.

I think drafting woman would be equal. Of course there are different circumstances but gender should not be one of them.

I support women who serve in the military (as well as men), because it's job I would never be able to do, and I respect those who can and want to. I have done some work at the VA Medical Center for practice, and one trend that is noticeable among female Iraq veterans is that they tend to have a higher rate of urogenital problems. Women just do not have the same biological ability to pee off the side of a Humvee, for example. Not to mention a whole slew of menstrual-related problems. I am no expert in combat medicine or gynecology, but it was just something interested that was pointed out to me.