Illustration by Arnulfo Bermudez
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday February 12, 2003
State legislatures are up to more than settling budget deficits. On Feb. 3, the House Committee on Commerce and Military Affairs voted 9-3 to change Arizona's draft registration. Under the proposed policy, all men from ages 16 ÷ 25 would automatically consent to be enlisted with the Selective Service when registering for a new driver license, license renewal or state identification card. Around the country, 26 other states have similar laws. Is automatic conscription by state ID registration a good idea?
Since most students are within 18 ÷ 25 years of age, what do you think of the Selective Service draft?
Selective Service un-American, immoral
The most fundamental right of every individual is the right to his own life, and in a free country, it may never be demanded by anyone or any mob ÷ democratic or otherwise ÷ for any reason. And that is why a U.S. draft spits on the principle of freedom and on every soldier, from the minutemen of the American Revolution to the men and women poised on Iraq's doorstep, who volunteered to defend American liberty.
Liberty means freedom to pursue one's own values according to one's own conscience ÷ and for every rational, moral man, his own life is his single greatest value. Any moral man would be ready in a minute to fight for the United States of America out of a righteously selfish love of his life and property ÷ against the conscripted soldiers of any dictatorship.
Though U.S. religio-Hegelian leadership since the late 19th century often found it had to turn a gun on its own people to scare up recruits for wars stemming from "foreign entanglements" ÷ most notably World War I, which saw the establishment of the Selective Service Act ÷ volunteer, professional soldiers have consistently stepped forward to fight every just war in America's history.
Not only should the state House reject the proposal linking the Arizona driver license application process to Selective Service registration, it must petition Congress to repeal the Selective Service Act.
Erik Flesch is a geosciences junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
No reason the state shouldn't enforce the law
The state should not be scrutinized for enforcing a law that has yet to be declared unconstitutional. Regardless of how we all feel about registering for a potential draft, it is perfectly reasonable for Arizona to use driver licenses as means of forcing people to register. Indeed, once the state switched from using voter registration to driver licenses to call people for jury duty, jury summons were full of new names.
As for the draft itself, it's difficult to justify forcing people to fight a war they may not even agree with. It happened in Vietnam and may very well happen again in Vietnam II (Iraq).
However, as Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York) has pointed out, most people who enlist in a volunteer military ÷ save a few who feel a sense of patriotism ÷ are those who see it as their only option because of economic conditions. Thus, volunteer militaries tend to be made up more of the underprivileged and minorities. Perhaps if a draft were being seriously considered for the possible war with Iraq, members of Congress and the Senate would look at it differently when they voted, since their own sons could be called.
Kendrick Wilson is a political science sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
New law would compound illegality of selective service
Yet another brilliant idea by the Arizona state Legislature: Solve the problem of enforcing the most dubiously constitutional institution in the nation through another ethically, and legally, questionable law.
Forcing 16-year-olds to essentially register for the selective service ÷ moving the paperwork forward a couple of years, so to speak ÷ removes the onus of consenting to a binding contract from the hands of adults and places it in those of children. That would be injustice enough in any contractual situation, but in this case, it is compounded by the nature of the contract itself ÷ the requirement that every man pledge his life in government-mandated support of his country.
The selective service, recently invoked in U.S. Representative Charles Rangel's idiotic plan to avert war with Iraq, is a vile and immoral institution. No man ÷ or woman for that matter ÷ should be forced to offer his life for anything; that's tantamount to murder. If the U.S. government has a problem raising enough volunteers to fight its wars, we should be more selective in the wars we fight.
Meanwhile, we shouldn't shift the burden of that heinous responsibility onto minors who aren't even old enough to vote. We need to ditch the draft and spare our children.
Caitlin Hall is a biochemistry and philosophy sophomore. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Proposed law may signal return of draft
The fact that an Arizona House Committee is sponsoring a bill that would require males to register for the Selective Service when applying for a driver license shows how times are changing before our very eyes.
Ten years ago, when our military was twice the size of what it is today, this proposed bill would never have gotten past the drawing board. Today, however, not only is this bill a good idea, it is a necessity.
At a time when our country needs them the most, many young men are choosing civilian jobs over military service. While that is a personal choice, registering for the Selective Service is not. It is required by law. This has not stopped many from ignoring that requirement, however.
The House Committee that proposed this law is thinking about the future of our military. President Clinton downsized our forces to a point where they are severely understaffed, and the fewer the people who are willing to sign on the line to relieve this shortage, the greater the chance the draft will return. It's closer to reality than many people think.
The Arizona House Committee on Commerce and Military Affairs is simply preparing us for when that time comes.
Steve Campbell is a senior majoring in Spanish. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Violating the rights of personal conviction
The notion to exercise driver license registration as an added measure to ensure young men enlist with Selective Service is an excellent way of making citizens comply with the law. There is no problem in a little bureaucracy, providing it suits a purpose. Enough people break laws every day that extra incentives should be applied in order to promote and maintain regulation of state and government statutes.
This is presuming that a principle-governing action or procedure has a well-founded intent.
As American citizens, we have the right to our own beliefs and moral objections without manipulation by any foreign power. Selective Service takes away the right of moral opposition and requires that young men consent to a draft ÷ submitting to fight and possibly die for a cause they may not personally believe in.
In Vietnam, we learned that engaging in combat with soldiers not wanting to be on a battlefield in the first place was a dangerous affair. As much as our armed forces need economic and racial diversity, fighting wars with non-volunteer draftees ends up doing more harm than good.
Incorporating a draft not only invades our right of personal conviction but also creates a military with weak links in all the wrong places.
Bill Wetzel is a creative writing and political science junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Legislature's proposed law is a non-issue; draft isn't
To all appearances, Arizona's proposal to fold Selective Service registration in with the process of getting a driver license is nothing more than legislative puffery ÷ an inspiring sound bite ultimately amounting to very little. In this case, the proposal is most likely an effort to demonstrate Arizona's patriotism in the prelude to war, a message to President Dubya that the people (well, the legislators, anyway) of the Grand Canyon State stand behind him. Otherwise, the proposal would appear to be of very little consequence.
If this latest example of Republican cheerleading is inconsequential, however, the draft itself most certainly is not. Several politicians and thinkers from both sides of the political spectrum have recently proposed the introduction of a year's mandatory service for high school graduates. Properly implemented, such a program might allow draftees to choose between a variety of opportunities in community service, social work and conservation, as well as traditional military service.
Although this idea would almost certainly prove a very hard sell, especially with the 18-year-olds it would most affect, it might also provide a powerful antidote to America's perennial and growing plague of callow, apathetic youth.
Phil Leckman is an anthropology graduate student. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
