Feeling a Draft?

Saturday's bombing of Iran has raised questions about some future draft.

Apparently, reacting to the Felon-in-Chief’s decision to bomb Iran, some people have wondered: Will there be a draft? Let’s talk about that.

The day after the bombing, Ed Hasbrouck, a highly knowledgeable anti-draft activist, sent out an email saying that 2,000 people had checked out his website, “looking for info about what to do if this leads to a draft.” He posted this link to his Draft Resistance News, with a lot of information on that subject. Check it out. Meanwhile, here’s a short summary of the nation’s draft registration system:

The system carries penalties for those men—yes, still only men—who don’t register for the draft when they turn 18. Those penalties range from criminal prosecution, which almost never happens, to denial of federal student loans and rejection for federal jobs. But the system is deeply flawed. First of all, many young men simply don’t know about the requirement. Others do know, but choose to ignore it. Among those who do register, many fail to fulfill the requirement that they update their address whenever they move. So we have a draft registration system that is both incomplete and out of date, to keep track of people to call up for a draft that does not actually exist.

The title of this post is “Feeling a Draft?” That is also the name of a chapter in my book, Sacred Soldier: The Dangers of Worshiping Warriors. It gives a long, detailed account of the nation’s experience with the draft. (Don’t worry: I’ll keep it brief now.) For that chapter, I tapped into Ed Hasbrouck’s expertise on draft history. As someone who actually experienced the draft, I had more than a passing interest in the question. In 1965, a year of intense buildup toward the full-fledged war in Vietnam, I received a letter from President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the introduction to Sacred Soldier, I summarize the story of my crazy year, which ended with my mandatory entry into the nation’s armed forces. I was just one of the 230,991 draftees that year.

Four years later, the nation started a draft lottery. In that system, your fate depended on a large glass container filled with little capsules, each containing a birth date. If your birthday was among the first to get pulled out of that container, you were likely to get drafted. If your birthday didn’t get pulled out until much later, you were highly unlikely to get drafted. Then, in 1973, not long before the war in Vietnam ended, the nation did away with the draft altogether. We now have an all-volunteer force and no draft. But we do have a mandatory system of registration for some future draft. For that, you can blame the late Jimmy Carter.

In 1975, Carter’s predecessor, President Gerald R. Ford, had signed a proclamation “Terminating Registration Procedures Under the Military Selective Service Act, as Amended.” That proclamation said that Ford wanted some future evaluation of an annual registration system. In the 1976 election, Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, the former Georgia governor. During the Carter presidency in the late Seventies, draft registration limped along in deep standby, just barely existing, on a much-reduced budget.

Weak on national defense?

Then came the 1980 election. In his re-election campaign, Carter feared that the Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan, would attack him for being weak on national defense. That, of course, would be the predictable Republican ploy: Republicans routinely claim Democrats are weak on national security or on crime, and Democrats meekly respond, trying to prove that they are not weak on either. Ironically, Reagan was not a fan of a peacetime draft. But Carter’s nervousness led to a sudden decision to revive draft registration.

In making that announcement in his 1980 State of the Union address, Carter even mentioned Iran:

At this time in Iran, 50 Americans are still held captive, innocent victims of terrorism and anarchy. Also at this moment, massive Soviet troops are attempting to subjugate the fiercely independent and deeply religious people of Afghanistan. These two acts—one of international terrorism and one of military aggression—present a serious challenge to the United States of America and indeed to all the nations of the world. Together, we will meet these threats to peace.

Later in the speech, he said:

I believe that our volunteer forces are adequate for current defense needs, and I hope that it will not become necessary to impose a draft. However, we must be prepared for that possibility. For this reason, I have determined that the Selective Service System must now be revitalized. I will send legislation and budget proposals to the Congress next month so that we can begin registration and then meet future mobilization needs rapidly if they arise.

As a result of Carter’s decision, we still have draft registration, of sorts. In 2019, a federal judge declared that the male-only registration requirement was unconstitutional. A federal appeals court reversed that decision, and the Supreme Court of the United Stated declined to hear the case. That leaves it up to the Congress of the United States to decide between two politically painful alternatives: expanding draft registration to include women, or doing away with the registration system entirely. But for Congress, inaction is a feature, not a bug, as it has proven in recent months, by doing nothing to put the brakes on the current regime.

So, it’s unclear what will happen with draft registration. It’s also unclear how Iran will react to Saturday’s bombing attack. If some wider war breaks out, would this Congress act to reinstate the actual draft, to bring in more troops, to fight yet another protracted war in the Middle East? After all, Congress did not reinstate a draft for the forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the bombing on Saturday leaves everyone wondering how Iran will react, and how America will react to that reaction. No one knows what Congress will do. Nor can we completely discount the possibility that the Felon-in-Chief, who managed not to be drafted for Vietnam by claiming bone spurs, might ignore Congress and unilaterally reinstate the draft by ostentatiously signing an executive order and showing it to the cameras.

Think ahead, just in case

If you are young enough to be affected by some future draft, and if you are worried, here’s an idea: Pax Christi USA, the Catholic peace movement, has just created something called the Ben Salmon No Just War Registry for Conscientious Objectors. It’s named for Benjamin Joseph Salmon, an American conscientious objector and opponent of the “just war” theory, sentenced to prison for refusing to fight in World War I.

“This registry was first conceived by members of Pax Christi New York State out of a deep concern for the possibility of another military draft,” Pax Christi USA explained. The announcement went on to say:

Although many faith traditions hold a conscientious objector registry for congregants, until now, none existed specifically for Catholics who do not wish to participate in war-making. Through conversation and prayer, this project was intentionally and collaboratively crafted by the Pax Christi USA National Council and staff to provide a dedicated framework to equip young Catholics in documenting and affirming their conscientious objection to war.

You can read the full Pax Christi USA announcement of the registry here.

It’s interesting that the title of the registry includes the phrase “No Just War.” We owe the development of the “just war” theory to Marcus Tullius Cicero in Rome and Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas in the Christian world. It lays out the principles to be followed by nations considering entering a war and the guidelines for how to conduct a war. But, as I wrote in Sacred Soldier:

I have not run across any case of a war that some nation contemplated but ultimately rejected because it didn’t fit the just-war criteria. So, I asked myself, if the just war theory only works to paste a stamp of approval on the killing, but never to stop it, how “just” is the theory, really?

In recent years, the Catholic Church has been moving away from the just war theory. Now Pax Christi USA has established this registry. If you are concerned about a future draft, and you want to put yourself on record as a conscientious objector, to bolster your objector credentials for some future draft board proceeding, this registry is the way to go. Let’s all hope that whatever the reaction to the Saturday bombing of Iran turns out to be, it won’t involve the need for a draft to send many more Americans to fight another forever war.