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Women shouldn't be forced to serve, nor should anyone else. Being forced to serve in the military is the same as slavery. According to what I've heard, we're not supposed to allow slavery in the USA anymore.

I write this from the perspective of a Conscientious Objector to war. I also write from the point of view that our human right to freedom supercedes any claim our country has on our services. I believe we have to look at the situation as free individuals and decide if we choose to fight or not, because we have the choice (in America anyway.)

If the U.S. is ever again definitely under attack on the home front, I am sure there will be women as well as men lined up at the recruiting office to volunteer for whatever needs to be done. It should be said that in the sixty-two years since World War Two, there have been no legally declared wars, though many thousands of lives have been lost in needless, unconstitutional "police actions": Korea, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, El Salvador, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. A close look at all these situations would show that none of these tiny nations posed a real threat to our country, so why should any citizen be subject to forced conscription to fight them?

Some who read this will say, "But we were attacked on 9/11!" Yes, we were attacked, but was it by Afghanistan? No, it wasn't. Many Americans have well-founded doubts whether we were even truly attacked by Al-Qaeda.

Did Iraq attack us on 9/11? So, neither the countries of Iraq or Afghanistan attacked us, but we have been fighting there for six years or so.

One way or the other, why should a woman be forced to serve in an undeclared war that is not even going after the one group who have admitted they did the attack?

You may feel you owe your country something, but why allow your freedom to be taken away by your own government for wars with two countries that had nothing to do with the attack of 9/11/01?

My point here is that not only does a woman NOT owe involuntary service to her country, but that she would be a fool to let her government send her to war against two whole countries that had nothing to do with what started this war.

Women will be welcomed to serve as volunteers in many capacities if we ever need to defend our freedom, here at home, but they should never be forced to serve.

The truth of the matter is, even if the draft is reinstated, nobody can be forced to participate. There will, no doubt, be many options for exemptions to military service, if and when we see the draft imposed upon us again. Mothers with young children should definitely be exempt from military service, but there is no telling what the as-yet-unwritten regulations will be.

During the Vietnam era, conscientious objectors were offer the option of doing hospital work as a non-violent form of national service. There are usually alternative choices if a person really refuses to participate in war and coerced military service.

The worst our country could do to a woman who refused the inevitable draft that is coming, would be to put her in prison. If the woman builds a case that she's a religious or spiritual person now, that might keep her out, too. Even if she's not religious, there are other ways to be legally free to refuse service.

She could tell the Draft board she's gay. That might work, too.

My point is that it's her life. No country owns its citizens. Unless she's sure it's a war she believes in, why should she allow herself to be drafted?

Learn more about this author, Paul Kemp.
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