Currently, there is no military draft in the U.S. But there is “selective service,” an odd requirement that all U.S. males, at 18 years old, register for — what, exactly? Basically, it’s a way to make it very easy to reinstate the draft.
The U.S. military is currently planning to scrap all limits on placing women in combat roles (the current limits do not keep women totally out of combat). So the logical next question is: Should women be as subject to drafting as men? Should women have to register for selective service?
That was Martha Raddatz’s question in Saturday evening’s debate.
Marco Rubio, probably the most hawkish GOP candidate, loved the idea of conscription equality. “I do believe that Selective Service should be opened up for both men and women in case a draft is ever instituted.”
While Jeb Bush said, “we don’t have a draft. I’m not suggesting we have a draft,” he agreed women should have to sign up for selective service.
Chris Christie actually interjected to register his support for selective service. He said there is “no reason why one — young women should be discriminated against from registering for the selective service. The fact is, we need to be a party and a people that makes sure that our women in this country understand anything they can dream, anything that they want to aspire to, they can do.”
No Republicans at the debate disagreed. This left the party in an interesting situation: The conservative party was unanimous in supporting conscripting women into combat.
Progress!
Today, Ted Cruz made a point of distinguishing himself.
“It was striking that three different people on that stage came out in support of drafting women into combat in the military,” Michael Warren of the Weekly Standard quoted Cruz saying in Peterborough, N.H. “I didn’t have an opportunity to respond to that particular question. But I have to admit as I was sitting there listening to that conversation, my reaction was, ‘Are you guys nuts?'”
Other candidates, including Donald Trump and John Kasich, have yet to stake out their position on whether the U.S. ought to force its young women to fight its wars.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
