The Libertarian Party's drive to end Selective Service registration couldn't have come at a more appropriate time.
It was on this date in 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was approved. The founders thought that if they signed the document and later were captured by the British, they almost certainly would be hanged as traitors. But, being men of considerable courage, they signed it anyway.
That sense of patriotism has stood the test of time. Americans aren't always eager to fight in protracted overseas "police actions," such as Vietnam. But when there is a legitimate struggle for national survival, they step forward in droves to fight and die. Military induction centers were packed at the outset of World War II, for example, and there is every reason to think future generations also will respond the next time there is a similar crisis.
That's why the military draft, and draft registration, were eliminated in the mid 1970s.
The draft has never been revived. But Jimmy Carter reinstated registration after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. His hope was to send the Soviets a message that the United States was ready to go to war, if pushed.
Even if that decision made sense at the time, which it didn't, it's outdated. There is no Soviet Union, no Warsaw Pact and no Communist expansionism. Also, the United States now relies less on a large standing army and more on precision military weapons that wreak destruction from afar.
The last U.S. president argued that registration still was needed as a defense "insurance policy."
But even the Pentagon disagrees.
"... our new military requires a great deal of training, a great deal of expertise and technological skills that, frankly, don't lend themselves to a short-term draft," it argued in a report to the president.
Even during the Cold War, the value of a draft was dubious. As Ronald Reagan said at the time, there isn't much value in computer lists of inexperienced young men. There is, however, considerable value in an experienced army, a million-man reserve and new weapons systems.
It costs $25 million a year to register young men for a draft that doesn't exist.
Even if it did exist, it might not be much help. A modern war probably would be over before conscripts could be drafted, trained and sent to the battlefields.
How odd that many of those who protested the draft during the Vietnam era now want to continue registration.
from Jacksonville.com
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