(ProsperNews.net) – Senate Democrats have added a compulsory military draft for women to the annual National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation sets out the Pentagon’s yearly budget and policies for the fiscal year ahead. Republicans immediately objected to the plan, saying women should not be forced to go to war. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri called the proposals “insane.”
The conservative group Advancing American Freedom wrote to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying forcing women to “fight our wars” is “simply untenable and must be opposed at all costs.” Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi pledged to fight to remove the proposal from the bill.
There are currently twenty countries worldwide in which women are drafted for war, including two in Europe. Israel is the only country that sends conscripted females to the frontline, although several countries have women fighters who sign up voluntarily. Israeli women have taken a more significant frontline role in the current war against Hamas in Gaza, with many mixed-gender groups under female command. Countries with frontline female troops include the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Norway, and several in Eastern Europe.
Women are subjected to the military draft in Sweden, Norway, Israel, Vietnam, North Korea, Venezuela, and fourteen African nations.
Whether the military should include women in a theoretical US draft has been discussed numerous times, including in 2020 when a panel of military experts told lawmakers that extending the draft to women is in America’s interests. Proponents argue that military combat has become less dependent on physical strength and is often fought using computer systems or advanced aircraft, meaning there are few reasons women cannot participate on an equal footing.
Jack Reed, the Democratic chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “It’s not like World War II where we need a lot of infantry.” Instead, Reed continued, the military now requires cyber experts, intelligence analysts, and linguists, and stated that these roles do not necessitate male physical strength advantage.
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