In the face of moves in Congress to ramp up U.S. readiness to activate a draft, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) have reintroduced an alternative proposal to step back from the brink of mass military mobilization by repealing the Military Selective Service Act.
In 2016, 2021, and again in 2022, Congress came close to approving legislation to expand the requirement to register with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft to include young women as well as young men. In 2024, that proposal is moving forward again in Congress as part of the annaul National Defense [sic] Authorization Act (NDAA), along with a proposal to try to register all young people “automatically” for a possible draft.
The Selective Service Repeal Act, reintroduced this week in the Senate as S. 4881, would instead end draft registration entirely. This bill has been introduced several times before in Congress, starting in 2019, but has never gotten a hearing in either the House or the Senate.
Ending draft registration would put an end to the fantasy that the draft is always available as a “fallback” — a myth that enables planning for larger, longer, less popular wars without concern for whether people will volunteer to fight them.
Male U.S. citizens and residents are required to register with the Selective Service System when they turn 18, and notify Selective Service every time they change their address until their 26th birthday.
Draft boards have been appointed and trained throughout the U.S. The Selective Service System maintains contingency plans for a general “cannon fodder” draft of young men (based on the current list of registrants) and a separate Health Care Personnel Delivery System. Congress has ordered the Pentagon to conduct a comprehensive mobilization exercise including its readiness to activate a draft.
Few young men comply fully with the draft registration law. Most men who register for the draft do so only if and when it is required for some other government program, and almost nobody tells the Selective Service System when they move. Most draft notices would be returned as undeliverable. Even the former Director of the Selective Service System has testified that the current Selective Service database is so incomplete and inaccurate that it would be “less than useless” for an actual draft.
But the expansion of draft registration to women, and the new proposal to try to make it “automatic”, are bad ideas that won’t go away until Congress ends draft registration entirely.
In the 1980s, the government prosecuted a handful of vocal nonregistrants, including me, whose public statements could be used to prove that our nonregistration was “knowing and willful”. Those “show trials” proved counterproductive, showing other nonregistrants that there is safety in silence as well as safety in numbers. The government abandoned enforcement of the registration law in 1988.
In recent years, the failure of draft registration has become too obvious to ignore. In response, the Selective Service System has proposed that it be authorized to obtain any other Federal records that might identify or locate young people, and “automatically” sign all young people up for a future draft.
This is a recipe for a privacy-invasive fiasco. No Federal agency has up-to-date addresses for all U.S. citizens or residents, or the other information needed to determine who is eligible to be drafted. “automatic” draft registration would be expensive and would produce an incomplete, inaccurate list.
But without hearings or public scrutiny, this proposal by the Selective Service System for “automatic” draft registration has been included in the versions of the NDAA adopted by the House and under consideration in the Senate in 2024.
Congress should end draft registration entirely, rather than trying to extend it to women or make it “automatic”. The Selective Service Repeal Act would end preparations for a draft and restore the eligibility of men who didn’t register for the draft for government jobs, naturalized citizenship, and those Federal and state government programs from which they are currently excluded.
By preventing a draft, draft registration resisters are helping to protect us all against war. We can support them by asking our Representatives and Senators to support the Selective Service Repeal Act.
Ask your U.S. Senators to say “no” to attempts to expand or automate draft registration, and instead to support S. 4881 and the similar Senate floor amendment to the NDAA. Ask ask your U.S. Representative to reintroduce this bill in the House of Representatives. And urge House and Senate Armed Services Committee members to push for hearings on Selective Service repeal.
Edward Hasbrouck maintains the Resisters.info website and publishes the “Resistance News” newsletter. He was imprisoned in 1983-1984 for organizing resistance to draft registration.
The Selective Service Repeal Act, reintroduced this week in the Senate as S. 4881, would instead end draft registration entirely. This bill has been introduced several times before in Congress, starting in 2019, but has never gotten a hearing in either the House or the Senate.
Expect the same fate this time.
The right of the state to demand military service is considered to be a 'natural right' of the state hence cannot be questioned.
Only a constitutional amendment which removes that right can end the military draft forever.
The era of the nation state is over … in all but name.
Asking the agents of the State (NOT the representatives of the people) to refrain from doing what they want and fully intend to do, is an exercise in pointless futility. Slavers don’t and never have cared if their prospective chattel and property approve of their victimization. Don’t ask, just tell them NO and justly, and forcefully, defend against their aggressions!
The Politicians and Hollywood Celebrities backing Israel's and Ukraine's war crimes should be drafted. Tom Cruise will be performing stunts at the Olympics and he should fight for his causes.
Gerard Butler was in London Has Fallen and he would also be a good candidate to fight for America's endless, needless wars.
”Alls we are saying!…. Is give Peace a chance!”
The US will need more people to fight wars of choice on the behalf of other nations.
Who wants to go freedomise Cuba and Venezuela?!
Most men who register for the draft do so only if and when it is required for some other government program
Indeed. When I was 21 and my then-girlfriend discovered that I hadn't registered she was distraught. "You can't get student aid if you're not registered," was her worry. I didn't really care, and told her so.
A few nights later she got me drunk and really, really stoned and produced the draft form, promising me great sex if I filled it out. I grabbed the closest writing instrument, a purple crayon we had been melting over the candle in a bottle, filled it out, and dragged her off to bed. (It wasn't that great, we were drunk and stoned.)
I never looked at the form before she sent it, I really doubt whether it was even legible. Never did apply for student aid.
When I registered for the draft in 1962 I asked for my status. I was told: "over the hill".
Old warmongers in Washington DC want to be able to identify and locate American young people to be drafted against their will to fight their wars abroad.
Indeed, Congress as the voice of the people should end draft registration entirely, rather than trying to extend it to women or to make it ‘automatic’.
Well, I think if the objective is to kill the draft, women should definitely be included. Then, watch selective service wither and die rapidly. Otherwise, it should be challenged on the basis of sex discrimination. Each gender having an equal stake in the game is the very definition of gender equality. Why should half the military-age population be asked to pick up a gun and go die for someone else's oil while the other half is given a free pass?
Given the total lawlessness allowed for "authorities" it would be over my dead body that anyone in my family goes to "serve" these fucking clowns agenda.
Last form of legal slavery in the US is the military.
Incorrect. Taxation is Slavery. ;) Debt is the leash that makes one a Slave.
The NeoconNazis would use the lives of American boys with equal insoucience as Ukrainian.
I've got an idea! Why don't the war hawks in office sign up to fight their wars personally?