Conscription of Women: A Fantasy, or a Nightmare?

The US Senate Defense Committee has dropped a provision requiring women to register for the draft. Women’s roles in war is a debate that every nation has to have. But like almost everything else in American culture, the debate is toxic and ugly. There are both logical and emotional reasons for not extending the draft to women, so it is not surprising that the idea has once again been dropped. However, the debate isn’t a polite one, it’s very nasty. This blog post by “Dalrock” is making the rounds on social media again. Here’s his argument against the Fantasy of Drafting Women.

First, a quick synopsis of the American draft, for readers who might not be familiar with it. The USA has had an all-volunteer military since 1973. This is actually a little unfortunate and the world might have been better off if this never happened. Mandatory conscription gives every family skin in the game and they can’t ignore it. America’s love affair with imperialism might have died in the Vietnam War, instead, it persisted to the present day.

Nonetheless, American men have to register for the draft, the Selective Service System, within 30 days of turning 18. With that registry comes an obligation for men to go to war if called upon to do so. Failing to register is a criminal offense, however, nobody has been prosecuted for this since 1986. Though nobody is outright prosecuted for draft dodging anymore, it does have serious personal consequences. Failure to register can result in a person being denied a government job, tuition assistance, or even a driver’s license.

There are two key differences between the USA and the rest of the world that must be considered:

1. The continental USA (or I should say, the Anglo USA) has not been invaded by a foreign army since the War of 1812. and even that was a family feud with our cousins across the pond. British soldiers burned the White House to teach the cheeky Americans a lesson, they weren’t trying to exterminate us. For Americans, war is simply geopolitics. We think war is cute and not something to take seriously. For America’s “adversaries,” or at least the people our government labels as adversaries, war is about survival. In the 20th Century, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea all survived wars of extermination. They know what it is like to fight to the last bullet and the last drop of blood. We do not. I wish Dear Leader in Washington would consider this fact more carefully.
   
2. The USA has never drafted women, making the idea a purely theoretical one. In World War II, the UK, Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and even Imperial Japan(!) all drafted women. Regardless of how Hollywood portrays it, America’s role in WWII was a small one, so it never became necessary to draft women. In the modern world, some countries like China do draft women. Others don’t. But even in most countries that don’t draft women, it is an understood truth that this rule can and probably would change if a war breaks out.

Keeping war “men’s business” is a privilege! But it came at a great cost, and here’s why.

World War II was a global tragedy that brought everybody together. All people, even people from oppressed racial and religious groups, could say they participated in the fight against the ultimate evil of fascism. Everybody got war heroes to admire and look to for inspiration. Even people in Germany can look back at their ancestors who resisted Hitler’s regime.

In the USA, our two most historically oppressed groups, African and Native Americans, went to war and became heroes. Despite America’s struggle with Imperial Japan and the internment camps, Japanese Americans successfully advocated for the right to go to war. The 442nd Infantry Regiment went on to become the most decorated unit of that size in American history, earning 18,000 awards over two years of fighting in Europe.

But there is one group of people in America who didn’t get war heroes, women. While there was not a necessity for the USA to draft women, our government went to absurd extremes to prevent women from participating at all, even by accident. The Woman Air Service Pilots (WASPs) were allowed to join the Army Air Corps as civilian ferry pilots but faced extreme abuse. Male service members sabotaged the WASPs’ planes, causing them to crash, and anti-air gunners deliberately shot at the women’s planes during target practice. (Read my other article on the subject here). After the war, the Department of Veteran Affairs and veteran advocacy groups spent decades campaigning against the WASPs receiving any recognition.

This created the weird situation we have today. Kazakhstan can say they had a female combat pilot in World War II, but the USA didn’t.

Why? It doesn’t make much sense, does it? Well, let’s go back to that blog post by Dalrock:

What this is about, and what this always has been about, is envy of men.  It is about eradicating the idea of masculine virtues, and more importantly, erasing all sentiment of gratitude for what the men in the military do.  To a feminist feeling gratitude to men is unbearable.  This is why every unit, especially elite forces and combat infantry, must include women.  When Seal Team Six took out Bin Ladin feminists were forced to bear the unbearable;  public officials expressed gratitude for the “men who risked their lives to accomplish the mission”, and feminists couldn’t chime in with “and women too!”

Never again.

Since the goal is to erase the concept of masculine virtues, the new bargain the introduction of women into combat represents isn’t to have women join equally or even seriously in the fighting and dying.  The new bargain is that men will continue to be the ones who fight and die, but they must not feel a sense of masculine pride in either doing this or having this obligation.  Registering women for selective service alongside men serves this goal, as does drafting women and letting those who don’t want to be there fail out.  The imagined downside for feminists is only a fantasy.

Yes, western feminism is very angry and hostile, but that attitude didn’t materialize in a vacuum, did it, Dalrock?

I have noticed that older conservative men, especially men who haven’t been in the armed forces (not sure if this applies to Dalrock, though I suspect if he was in the military he would endlessly boast it, so he probably didn’t), are deeply angry and feel threatened by military women. It’s bizarre and more than a little pathetic. Hatred does have consequences. Frankly, I don’t appreciate having this bitter attitude dumped on my head while growing up. In hindsight, it feels more ridiculous the older I get.

Here, Dalrock, I’ll answer your question. This is why feeling “grateful” is “unbearable” for feminists. It probably is unbearable. That’s because there are few experiences in life more humiliating than being inferior to another person. Your entire identity seems to revolve around feeling superior to women, and that they should be grateful to you. Don’t you think that at least some of those women are going to be angry and hate men? It’s actually worse than that. American culture has spent at least several generations teaching women that their most innate traits as women are worthless and inferior to men. You’re either a man or a slave and there’s no other choice.

Being “woke” was a cultural mistake, but it didn’t start yesterday. Go back to World War II. Remember Rosie the Riveter? Norman Rockwell hired a petite bombshell to model for him, and then painted a burly body. Now that’s not his fault, Rockwell was just doing what he was told. But still, Rosie was America’s first transgender supermodel. The goal of the propaganda campaign was to encourage more women and girls to enter the industrial workforce, and it was a total failure. Even with substantially higher pay, female participation in America’s wartime economy didn’t even break 40%. It’s easy to understand why, judging from the WASPs’ story. And of course, turning wrenches in a factory is backbreaking work. Being hated just isn’t worth getting paid more.

Wouldn’t it have been much more effective to paint an average-looking girl with an average body? The very fact that Rosie had to have a man’s body is proof that America has been “woke” for a long time and it’s extremely unhealthy.

That’s why feminists themselves, ironically, ended up enforcing this reality. They chase a dream of becoming more masculine. Feminists mostly failed at becoming masculine, and were left with feminity that is even more despised than it used to be, so what are they left with now?

Even Dalrock himself seems to have sort of recognized this truth in a later blog post in 2019.

For men and women with daughters concerned about the possibility of a draft, my advice would be to consider the issue as it relates to the popular push to have daughters prove their athletic prowess. A girl who went through school trying to prove she is like one of the guys will naturally feel much more pressure to prove herself physically if drafted, even if she doesn’t want to serve [emphasis mine]. Also, instructors are going to pick up on which young women have “moxie”, and press them much harder to pass military physical fitness requirements than they will a young woman who has a truly traditional vibe. Should we ever find ourselves drafting women, kick ass conservative gals are going to feel much more internal and external pressure to not wash out, and women with a quiet and gentle spirit are far more likely to be permitted to fail out.

It was incredibly predictable that a growing number of women were going to try to do more masculine things – not because they enjoy it, but because they feel relentless social pressure. Their only other prospect in life is to dress up as a clown and grovel at men’s feet. Now we seem to have hit another even more extreme milestone, with girls and women literally becoming men via transition drugs and surgery. The opposite is also true. A man who feels like he’s failing at achieving “ideal” masculinity can dress up as a clown and be a woman instead. This of course puts even more pressure on women. They have to either compete with masculine men, or compete with feminine men dressed up as clowns.

Instead of whining, maybe ask yourself why that’s happening.

Ian Kummer

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