I read Marine Gen. Robert Neller’s comment that the U.S. should start registering women for the selective service.
Let’s see now. The U.S. hasn’t actually drafted anyone since 1973. In the interim, however, we’ve spent more than a billion dollars to register 18-year-old men for a program that doesn’t exist, and the general wants to double it by extending it to women? If there was ever a useless government program that won’t go away, this has to be it.
In a June 2012 report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office suggested the program be re-evaluated, and estimated that eliminating draft registration would save $24.4 million annually once the program was dismantled. The draft isn’t coming back, and anyone who believes that the government will be able to reinstate it without a massive protests from the American people is too young to remember the Vietnam War.
The last men drafted will be turning 63 this year, and could presumably be the grandfather of someone required to register now. Rather than extending draft registration — a program that has cost millions and produced nothing for 43 years — let’s end draft registration now.
— David L. Perry, Chicago
