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Ending the draft

Bipartisan move comes after Pentagon allows women in all combat roles

Colorado Reps. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, and Jared Polis, D-Boulder, are among the bipartisan sponsors of a bill introduced Thursday that would end the draft. The move comes at least in part in response to calls for requiring women as well as men to register with Selective Service.

It makes sense. As Coffman said of the draft, “It outlived its usefulness a long time ago.”

It lost popular support before that. It is not an accident that no one has been drafted in this country for more than 40 years.

Coffman thinks that in the Vietnam War the draft was unfair. “It seemed that those that came from influential or wealthy families always managed to navigate their way out of military service during that time,” he said, “And those from working class families disproportionately bore the brunt of that fighting.”

That sentiment was widely held – and there is more than a little evidence that it is accurate. As implemented, the draft had a number of exemptions, deferments and loopholes, many of which were more readily available to the sons of more wealthy Americans.

Coffman also has standing to weigh in on the relative importance of the draft. A veteran of both the Army and the Marine Corps, he also served in Iraq.

In addition to Polis and Coffman the bill is also sponsored by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. And with those four names the partisan and ideological bases are pretty well covered. Whatever happens to this bill it is unlikely to pass or fail on a party-line vote.

The impetus for ending the draft is simple. The U.S. military now allows women to serve in all capacities, including in infantry and armored units. Continuing to require only men to register – and, at least in theory, possibly be conscripted – does not comport with that equality. And with that there have been increasing calls to make women subject to the draft.

It has even been brought up in Republican debates. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio favor including women, while Ted Cruz has said, the idea “is immoral.”

Coffman and Polis have both said that if their bill to end the draft dies they would favor including women in the draft. But it should not have to come to that. Ending the draft would save the country as much as $23 million. That is not much money by federal standards, but it is a great deal to spend on something we do not need and have not used for two generations.



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