Anti-draft testimony, statements, editorials, op-eds, columns, and articles

[Teenagers Against the Draft, Boston, MA, 21 March 1981. Photo © Ellen Shub. All rights reserved.]

There are many reasons to resist or oppose oppose the draft, draft registration, and the Selective Service System.

Below are links to some of the testimony submitted to the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service in 2018-2020 and other calls for resistance, statements in support of resistance, and editorials, op-eds, columns, and articles by organizations and individuals opposed to the draft and draft registration, for women or men, from a variety of perspectives.

You too can speak out against the draft and draft registration! Write a letter to the editor or an article for your student or community newspaper or Web site. Post a comment online, on social media or in your blog. Post a quick #iobject #iwillresist #nodraft video stating why you oppose the draft. Let the world know that you oppose the draft and draft registration, that you will resist if drafted, and that you will support and defend others who resist. We especially want to hear from women who plan not to register with the Selective Service System when you turn 18, if you are required to do so. We can publish your resistance statement, with your name or anonymously, or link to your statement or video. You can reach us at resisters@hasbrouck.org. Your statements will help encourage and empower others. (More you can do to educate, agitate, and organize against the draft and draft registration.)

Calls for resistance and statements in support of resistance to draft registration:

• A Call for Resistance (National Resistance Committee, 1980)
• Hell, No! We Still Won’t Go! (War Resisters League, 2019)
• CODEPINK Opposes Compulsory Draft Registration for All Genders (2019)
• Testimony of Edward Hasbrouck to the NCMNPS (April 2019) (video)
• Women: Do Not Register for the Draft. (Rivera Sun)
• “There will be resistance.” (Rivera Sun for CODEPINK)
• Draft registration demands resistance (Ethan Foote, 10 June 2021)
• “As a mother, grandmother and teacher, I will… inform others to resist draft registration” (Kathleen Hernandez)
• “I am proud of the example I served” by refusing to register. (Dan Rutt)
• “I’d resist again if I were asked to register or to be drafted.” (Edward Hasbrouck)
• Conscientious Resistance (Kenneth Hale-Wehmann)
• Chicago Anti-War Coalition (“We support resistance.”)
• Courage to Resist

Reasons to resist and forms of resistance to the draft and draft registration:

• Why do some people oppose the draft and draft registration (“Selective Service”)?
• Feminists against the draft and draft registration
• Women, the draft, and draft registration
• Health care workers and the medical draft
• Does the U.S. need a draft for self-defense? No.
• Draft resistance and the politics of identity and status
• Ageism, youth liberation, and the draft
• Compulsory national service
• Channeling young people’s choices
• Public vs. quiet resistance
• Conscientious objection or draft resistance: Making a choice
• Let’s Be Serious When We Talk About War: “We Still Won’t Go” (Letter to the Editor, New York Times, 9 December 1990)
• Community Service: Letter from Edward Hasbrouck to U.S. District Judge David S. Nelson (5 August 1983)
• Solidarity in draft resistance: Letter from Edward Hasbrouck to the U.S. government (3 October 1981)

Secular statements against the draft and draft registration for women or men:

• Joint statement on House and Senate votes to expand Selective Service to women (6 October 2021)
  
• Appeal for a full and fair hearing on Selective Service (open letter to the House Armed Services Committee, March 2021)
• Anti-draft activists call on Congress to end draft registration (joint statement of anti-draft and anti-war organizations, March 2020)
• International Peace Research Association
• National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy
• National Lawyers Guild
• NoDraft.org (testimony to the NCMNPS)
• Columns and radio commentaries against the draft and draft registration by Paul Jacob
• Truth in Recruitment
• World BEYOND War
• Ending Selective Service registration (Resolution approved by vote of the membership of Veterans for Peace, 2012: “Veterans For Peace calls on the government of the United States to immediately revoke the Selective Service Act.”)
• “No man or woman should be pawns in the game of war…. Stop the draft!” (Vietnam veterans and draftees Keith Rogers, Willie McTear, and Robert Foust)
• “Should Service Be Mandatory? No.” (Testimony of Lucy Steigerwald, Antiwar.com, to the NCMNPS, February 2019)
• “Selective Service is ageist, undemocratic, and immoral. Do away with it.” (Kate Connell, March 2019)
• In 2021, Draft Registration Could Be Ended… or Doubled (by Brian McGlinchey, Stark Realities, 1 May 2021. “No one should consider it ‘progress’ for women to be forcibly exposed to the risk of being maimed or killed in some future conflict that, if history is any guide, is likely to be a pointless exercise that does nothing to advance national security.”)
• “End the draft.” (Judith Stetson)
• Don’t Draft Women — Or Men (Jack Perry)
• “Selective Service is Ready for Retirement” (Natalie Jolly, USAF Air War College Thesis, 2019)
• Interview with Marc Angelucci, Vice-President of the Natiuonal Coalition For Men and counsel for the NCFM in NCFM v. Selective Service System

Religious statements against the draft and draft registration for women or men:

• Coalition of Faith-based Organizations (including National Council of Churches and Center on Conscience and War)
• Quaker and feminist organizations denounce vote on drafting women (AFSC.org, 2 September 2021)
  
• It Is Time to Abolish Draft Registration and Restore Full Rights to People of Conscience (Center on Conscience and War)
• Selective Service Registration: Coercion of Conscience (Center on Conscience and War)
• Center on Conscience & War (testimony to the NCMNPS)
• Sojourners (testimony to the NCMNPS)
• Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
  • Testimony of Diane Randall of FCNL to the NCMNPS (April 2019)
  • Take a Stand for Peace and Get Rid of the Draft (FCNL, 21 February 2020)
  • Boulder Friends Meeting
  • Rochester Friends Meeting
  • Santa Barbara Friends Meeting
  • Third Haven Friends Meeting
• Anabaptist Churches
• Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church
• Old Order Mennonites
• Weaverland Old Order Mennonite Conference
• Mennonite Brethren Chirch (USMB)
• Hutterian Brethren
• The Bruderhof
• More religious statements on conscientious objection

Newspaper editorials against draft registration:

• Women and the military (Editorial, Iowa State Daily, 15 November 2021. “Selective service… should be eliminated.”)
• In Josh Hawley’s world of ‘masculinity,’ women are second-class for the military draft (Editorial, Kansas City Star, 4 November 2021. “Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri… has a better idea. She’s introduced a bill to abolish draft registration for men and women…. We think that’s a good approach.”)
• Female draft debate should reopen the whole issue of involuntary service (Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 28 July 2021)
• Abolish the Selective Service System (Editorial, Orange County Register, 9 January 2020)
• Stop calling: Nation has no good reason to keep draft registration (Editorial, Brownsville [TX] Herald, 19 January 2020)
• Why should women — or men — have to register for the draft (Editorial, Los Angeles Times, 28 February 2019)
• Draft registry for women? How about for no one? (Editorial, Los Angeles Times, 16 February 2016
• Time to End Selective Service (Editorial, The Virginian-Pilot, 6 March 2016)
• It’s time to abolish the Selective Service and end the draft (Editorial, The Denver Post, 11 February 2016)
• Abolish the Selective Service System (Editiorial, Georgetown Voice, 15 March 2019)
• Stop Calling: Nation has no good reason to keep draft registration (Editiorial, Concord [NH] Monitor, 19 January 2020)
• Question of whether women should register for draft is moot: Draft registration should be eliminated. (Editorial, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, 28 February 2019)
• Women in combat raises questions about draft (Editorial, Sidney [OH] Daily News, 23 December 2015)
• If we don’t need a draft, why have registration? (Editorial, Philadelphia Daily News, 18 October 2004)

Op-eds, articles, and columns against draft registration:

• Expanding the Military Draft Is Not Feminism. Abolishing Draft Registration Is. (Op-Ed by draft-age women in the CODEPINK Peace Collective, Truthout, 23 August 2021)
• Abolish draft registration - don’t expand it to include women (Commentary by Arnie Alpert, New Hampshire Bulletin, 22 December 2021)
• Registering women for the draft may not be a done deal (by Jazz Shaw, Hot Air, 9 November 2021)
• What If Instead Of Making Selective Service Gender-Neutral, We Abolished It Entirely? (by Robyn Pennacchia, Wonkette, 8 June 2021)
• Should women be exempt from the draft? The Supreme Court took a pass on deciding (by Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2021. “… For feminists with pacifist tendencies like me, the issue of all-gender Selective Service registration poses a dilemma. If we force anyone to register, we should force everyone to register, right? But is the system really necessary at all?”)
• Women don’t register for the draft, and men shouldn’t either (by Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, 19 June 2021. “Congress shouldn’t just end male-only draft registration. It should end draft registration, period.”)
• Let’s run Selective Service up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes (Letters to the editor by Edward Hasbrouck and Stuart M. Wax, Boston Globe, 26 June 2021)
• In the World’s Most Militarized Power, Conscription Is a Tool of War (by Doug Bandow, Antiwar.com, 10 March 2021)
• Abolish Selective Service (by Robert Enders, Daily Kos, 7 June 2021)
• Instead of a female expansion, America should retire our archaic draft once and for all (Op-Ed by Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-MO, TheHill.com, 17 November 2021)
• Will there be a new military draft? Why should we care? (by Edward Hasbrouck, Fifth Estate, Winter 2020)
• Drafting Women Into the Military Is Not Progress(by Maria Santelli, Sojourners, August 2020)
• Drafting Women in the Name of Gender Equality Misses the Mark (by Erinn Colt, Courage to Resist, 10 August 2020)
• An Old Path Backward (Last Draftees blog, 1 June 2020)
• Women feel a draft: On conscription, unlikely isn’t unimportant (editorial, Mennonite World Review, 1 June 2020)
• Draft a new solution: Registration’s problems go beyond inequality (editorial, Mennonite World Review, 6 June 2016)
• Four Reasons to Ditch the Draft (by Rivera Sun, PeaceVoice, 24 April 2020)
• On International Women’s Day, say No to drafting women — or anyone! (by Rivera Sun, PeaceVoice / CODEPINK, 2020)
• Could the U.S. Reinstate the Military Draft? (by Daniel Holland, Yes! Magazine, 13 February 2020. “his is my call to resist.”)
• It’s Time. End Draft Registration, Once and for All (by Rivera Sun, Antiwar.com, 21 November 2019)
• How To Stop A New ‘Forever War’: Bring Back the Draft? (by Doug Bandow, The National Interest, 25 February 2020. The title of the article is a rhetorical question. Bandow’s answer is, “No,” and the article explains why.)
• Military draft should be banned in the US (Op-Ed by Lauryl Hebenstriet, Daily Nebraskan, 5 March 2019)
• Is the Draft Coming Back? (column by Ron Paul, 3 February 2020)
• Drafting Women Means Equality in Slavery (column by Ron Paul, 1 May 2016)
• Statement of former Selective Service Director Dr. Bernard Rostker to the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (24 April 2019. “There is no need to continue to register people for a draft that will not come; no need to fight the battle over registering women, and no military need to retain the Military Selective Service Act.”)
• Just Say No to Draft Registration for Women — and Men (by Thomas Knapp, Antiwar.com, 15 February 15, 2016. “Testifying before the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee in early February, Generals Mark A. Milley (the US Army’s chief of staff) and Robert B. Neller (commandant of the US Marine Corps) endorsed extending mandatory Selective Service registration to women. Because, you know, equality. I have a better idea. It’s time to end draft registration for everyone. Because, you know, freedom.”)
• America’s military draft is an assault on liberty. End it. (by Bonnie Kristian, The Week, 17 January 2017)
• It’s time to repeal the Selective Service Act (Op-Ed by Rev. John Buttrick, Concord [NH] Monitor, 19 January 2020)
• Was Ending the Draft a Grave Mistake? No. (by Rory Fanning and Joe Allen, TruthDig, 16 April 2019)
• Time to scrap Selective Service System (syndicated column by Marsha Mercer, 28 February 2019)
• Military draft no longer necessary (Op-Ed by Joe Carter, Detroit News, 27 February 2019)
• The Draft Should be Abolished for Everyone — Not Just Women (by Ryan McMaken, Mises Institute, 25 February 2019)
• Feminists weigh in on draft registration for women (by Claire Schaeffer-Duffy, National Catholic Reporter, 28 June 2016)
• Dump draft registration, don’t extend it to women (Op-ed by Edward Hasbrouck, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 June 2016; PDF)
• Why Drafting Women Isn’t Gender Equality (by Myra Pearson, BUST, June 2016)
• End, Don’t Extend, the Draft (by Sheldon Richman, Reason, 11 February 2016)
• Top generals say women should be required to register for the draft - but we should instead abolish registration for men (Op-Ed by Prof. Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy, Washington Post, 2 February 2016)
• Even the secretary of the Army questions the wisdom of keeping the Selective Service (Op-ed by Mariel Garza, Los Angeles Times, 6 December 2016)
• Don’t make women register for the draft. Just end draft registration for everyone. (Op-Ed by Christopher Preble, Cato Institute, Washington Post, 5 February 2016; also reprinted by the Cato Institute)
• Including Women Is Not The Right Next Step For Selective Service(by Carl Forsling, Task & Purpose, 5 January 2016)
• Time to abolish Selective Service (by Benjamin Powell, Ph.D., The Hill, 6 January 2016)
• Don’t extend draft registration to women; end it for men (syndicated column by by Paul F. de Lespinasse, Ph.D., 18 December 2015)
• Selective Service serves no purpose (by Bridget Bush, Columnist, Louisville Courier-Journal, 14 June 2016)
• Time to end draft registration (by David R. Henderson and Chad W. Seagren, Hoover Institution, 10 February 2016)
• Military draft: Conscription violates ideals of freedom (Op-Ed by Ellorine Carle, Casa Grande High School, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, 1 December 2013)
• Exposing the Coming Draft (by Tom Reeves, CounterPunch, 19 March 2005)
• Selective Disservice: The Indefensible Discrimination of Draft Registration (by William A. Kamens, 52 American University Law Review 703-759, 2003)

Anti-Draft News Articles

More articles and commentary about the draft and draft registration (pro and con)