By Emily Moran
Elm Staff Writer
Recently, Congress introduced a bill that would compel young women to register for the draft. Representatives Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California, and Ryan Zinke, a Republican from Montana, who have in the past criticized the military’s decision to open up all combat roles to women, are now leading the campaign to include women in the draft. Earlier last week, top officers in the Army and the Marine Corps stated that they believe women should start registering for the Selective Service, the agency responsible for implementing a draft. Due to the recent decision to make women eligible for any military job or role of combat, compulsory draft registration seems like the logical next step. There are some barriers that this new bill faces and other issues that may prevent it from being passed.
The first barrier comes in the form of the very congressmen that introduced the bill in the first place. According to The Washington Post, “For Hunter and Zinke, the bill does not mark a change of heart, but serves as a way to make a point.” Hunter himself stated that while the bill will allow other Congress members to weigh in on the issue, he would likely vote against his own proposal. So, even if the bill were to advance to where Congress would vote on it, it would not be likely to pass, given the attitudes of many congressmen about women in the military.
I find that another issue with this bill is the specter of the high amount of incidences of sexual assault against women in the military. While I have no problem with women signing up for the draft, it does not seem like a wise decision at this time, when sexual assault in the military is still such a huge problem for women in the military. According to the Department of Defense, the total reports of sexual assault in the military has risen 41 percent from 2012 to 2014, and there were 6,131 reports of sexual assault in 2014 alone. One must also take into consideration the number of sexual assault cases that usually go unreported inside and outside of the armed forces. Also, according to study conducted by a military research corporation on behalf of the Department of Defense, “nearly two-thirds of service members who report sexual assault – 62 percent – say they experienced some form of social or professional retaliation from their fellow service members in 2014.” It is safe to assume that many more instances of sexual assault occur but aren’t being reported due to fear of some sort of retaliation from their peers or superiors. That being said, the military is an extremely dangerous environment for women, and much of the danger is coming from their fellow service members. When women soldiers have to worry more about being harmed by their own fellow soldiers than by the opposing forces, there is a serious problem at hand that needs to be properly dealt with.
Although this bill seems like the logical next step towards fully including women in the military forces, it probably won’t be made into law anytime soon. Along with the many lawmakers opposing the bill, including its own creators, there are other glaring issues such as sexual assault in the military that need to be dealt with prior to including women in the draft. While I see no issue with having women sign up for the draft, their safety and well-being must take priority. More needs to be done about sexual assault in the military before including women in the draft.
Drafting woman before correction?
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The U.S. Senate stated that, “The Feres Doctrine should not be applied for military personnel who are harmed by inappropriate human experimentation when informed consent has not been given.”, i.e., used as human guinea pigs! + “Every year, thousands of experiments utilizing human subjects are still being conducted by, or on behalf of, the DOD.” This is part of the December 8, 1994 REPORT 103-97 “Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans’ Health?….” Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, 103rd Congress 2ND Session. A dysfunctional U.S. Congress still withholds military needed for treatment and experimentation identifying records. This is proven by their from 1999 through 2007, EIGHT (8) TIMES rejection of the “Veterans Right to Know Act”. In 2016 Congress’s own to date ignored “hazardous” human experimentation “lessons” learned now span seventy two (72) years without correction, i.e., 1944 – 2016!
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A brief background follows: In 1950 the U.S. Supreme Court Feres Case determined that an accidental barracks fire death was a U.S. is not responsible “incident to service”. On 26 February 1953 was the TOP SECRET Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary’s NO non-consensual, human experiments Memo; pgs. 343-345, The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code; Human Rights in Human Experimentation ! On 22 Aug. 1975 the memo was unclassified. The 1987 U.S. Supreme Court STANLEY decision makes clear that deliberately injured, experimented on and not consenting Military Personnel are “incident to service” guinea pigs! Approved was a U.S. Military, sovereign immunity Doctrine of the king can do no wrong, injurious 1958 non-consensual LSD experiment. It was in direct disobedience of the DOD Secretary’s 1953 order. In 1994 was the U.S. Senate Report identifying a then 50 years of experiments, now ongoing, on militay personnel. Ten (10) documentation sources are available on request. Your suggestions on how to accomplish the to-date unsuccessful elimination of the Feres, guinea pig, Doctrine, before drafting women subjects, would be most welcome.
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Thank You.
David Marshall
100% disabled 1952-1956 USAF Jet Aircraft Mechanic; B.U. 1957-1961 B.S.M.E.