One of President Nixon's good deeds was to abolish the draft in 1973. One of President Carter's bad deeds was to restore draft registration in 1980. On Christmas Eve 1963, I was the first draft card burner of the Vietnam War era. (My then fiancée, Jane Gordon, aided and abetted.) Now that there is talk of registering women for the draft, I say it is time for a mass draft card burning, men and women alike. Let women make and burn their own draft cards, before this ugly idea of unisex conscription takes hold; this ugly perversion of gender equality. Let’s stamp out the draft card law once and for all, and for all sexes. [Technical name is Military Selective Service Act.]
Of course, we don’t have a draft right now, but forced registration for Selective Service is the thin entering wedge, with all its apparatus of prosecution and prison for noncompliance. I have long held that fear of prison is the essence of the draft. (I’m ok with some kind of voluntary national service, a la the Civilian Conservation Corps [or the California Conservation Corps]. But prison poisons the project.)
My own orientation is pacifism, but forced military service is anathema to many others, such as the libertarian Cato Institute which back in 1999 summed up the situation thus:
Registration never made sense. President Jimmy Carter reinstituted the draft sign-up to show the Soviets that he was tough. President Ronald Reagan promised to kill the program, but flip-flopped after the Soviet-inspired crackdown in Poland.
Even then, however, Moscow could tell the difference between a serious military and an outdated list of untrained 18-year- olds.
—Doug Bandow, “Time to Kill Draft Registration”
In the February 5, 2016 Washington Post, Cato commentator Christopher Preble argued “Don’t Make Women Register for the Draft. Just End Draft Registration for Everyone.”
As it happens, the Selective Service registration law is almost a dead letter with a zombie bureaucracy costing $23 million a year, and a huge website. But in the early ‘80s it was used to prosecute and imprison about 20 draft resisters, and even today it huffs and puffs about the legal obligation to register, with the latent threat of prison if you don’t, and loss of federal privileges besides. About draft cards, it claims not to require them, while splitting hairs and dancing around that very requirement — knowing full well what a vivid symbol of resistance to the Vietnam war burning draft cards became.
As for the prison threat, here it is (and note that this very Kos article you are reading is against the law):
who otherwise evades or refuses registration or service in the armed forces or any of the requirements of this title (said sections), or who knowingly counsels, aids, or abets another to refuse or evade registration [emphasis added —gk] or service in the armed forces or any of the requirements of this title (said sections), or of said rules, regulations, or directions, or who in any manner shall knowingly fail or neglect or refuse to perform any duty required of him under or in the execution of this title (said sections), or rules, regulations, or directions made pursuant to this title (said sections), or any person or persons who shall knowingly hinder or interfere or attempt to do so in any way, by force or violence or otherwise, with the administration of this title (said sections) or the rules or regulations made pursuant thereto, or who conspires to commit any one or more of such offenses, shall, upon conviction in any district court of the United States of competent jurisdiction, be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine of not more than $10,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment [Fine increased to $250,00 (sic) by 18 U.S.C. 3571(b)(3)]
Of course, the draft provided cannon fodder for mass slaughter in the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. The time to stop a return to 5-and-6-digit killing is now. Let us hope that any attempt to double the reach of compulsory draft registration will signal the death rattle of Selective Service. Already there is a bi-partisan bill in Congress to abolish it,
H.R. 4523 TO REPEAL THE MILITARY SELECTIVE SERVICE ACT, AND THEREBY TERMINATE THE REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS OF SUCH ACT AND ELIMINATE CIVILIAN LOCAL BOARDS, CIVILIAN APPEAL BOARDS, AND SIMILAR LOCAL AGENCIES OF THE SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM.
and a support petition for that can be signed here.
Meanwhile, it is high time for a new wave of draft card burning, and asking all candidates whether they suppport H.R. 4523 for the root-and-branch extinction of the military draft, registration, and all its agencies.