How do Americans feel about the SSS including the fact it’s mandatory to register?

28 comments

1. My only complaint is that it is gender based. I otherwise have no issues with it.

   We have proven over the last 50 years that it won’t be abused. If it *was* abused I would be first in line to protest.

2. I didn’t like the sound of it when I first heard about it. I think I was in college and learned about it and was blown away that was a thing in the US.

3. There is no draft, and hasn’t been since before I was born and I’m near 50, the military is entirely voluntary at this point. It’s just a list in case of a WWIII type situation. The only real punishment for not signing up is being excluded from some federal government opportunities.
   My only “complaint” is that it is limited to males.

4. It shouldn’t exist at all.

5. I’m registered for it. It’s not exactly a big deal in this day and age. If the US in a time of war became so desperate that it felt the need to draft men then shit would truly have hit the fan and the US would have to be under threat of imminent invasion or ww3 was happening.

6. Most countries required some sort of national or military service, here its just in case of WW3 type of thing. 80% of Americans are ineligible for military because of obesity or mental health issues, so if they ever had to draft people we’d be screwed anyway.

7. Feels unlikely to ever be used (any war large enough would just be nuclear annihilation anyway), but having a system in place seems fine. It should be all Americans though, women are as capable of being soldiers as any of us are (which to be clear, is incredibly incapable lol)

8. I had no issues with it, was happy to actually, when I registered in the 80s. The only way I see the draft coming back these days is an unmitigated WW3 scenario. And if that’s the case, being registered or not will be irrelevant.

9. I don’t care about it

10. I’d prefer it was not a gendered thing, but I don’t foresee that changing any time soon since it is sort of an antiquated program to begin with. The entire thing needs a bit of a reboot.

    Would I want my daughter to be drafted? Not really; I saw her father off on 5 deployments and it wasn’t the best time of my life — that’s to say it was fucking awful, every minute of it. But right is right and if my best friends son can get called up at the same time *her* husband does, why shouldn’t the same be true of my daughter?

    To be clear, I cannot be drafted which is why I did not include myself in this. I’m too old, disabled, and bipolar + c-ptsd. They do not want me.

11. My view us that everyone over the age of 18 should have a 2 year commitment for either the military, coast guard, border patrol, or for some type of Conservation Corps program.

    I did my time and it was a good thing for me as it teaches a lot of life skills that most miss out on. I know my thoughts on this will not go over well here in reddit.

12. Not sure how representative this is of current opinion–I graduated high school in 2009. I’m female and did not have to register, but at the time my social circle was like 60-70% male and the majority (if not all) of them had a negative opinion on selective service and were unhappy to register. iirc it was a combination of a moral objection to the draft concept entirely, a moral objection to war in general, a disinterest in being drafted for the *active* war, and some degree of discomfort with the imbalanced gender expectation. one of my friends was even going into the military himself (Coast Guard) but still opposed SSS.

13. I don’t care

14. I didn’t really care about doing it when I turned 18, I just filled out a form at the post office. Not a very major burden.

15. I’ve rarely if ever thought about it since I registered many years ago.
    I remember a slight uneasiness at 18 because of the “realness” of something connecting you to war even if its in an extremely vague and unlikely way, but you quickly forget about it after if it never gets mentioned ever again. It’s really not a concern.

16. I don’t think a draft should ever be a thing tbh. No one should be forced to fight for their country.

17. Don’t care really. My high school gave us the forms needed to register for it and for voting. Wound up enlisting anyway. There won’t be a draft unless it’s ww3 or aliens invade. Nobody serious wants a draft. The politicians don’t have the spines for, the military doesn’t want it, and the people serving sure as fuck don’t want it. Last thing I needed in Iraq was some draftee next to me who wanted nothing to do with the Army.

18. I accepted it the same way if I was on on a sinking ship, women and children would get the lifeboats first.

    I have since aged out of the program.

19. When I was 18 I was of the opinion that it was my duty to fight and die if that’s what was demanded. Sounds silly but that’s how I thought. Now I can see how ridiculous it is to have drafts (like for Korea and Vietnam) when the country wasn’t even under threat, just to fight some BS forever war.

20. Personally, I wouldn’t die for this country, nor fight for it….

21. The Selective Service System is a necessary evil. In the event of another World War it would very likely be necessary to preserve the freedoms we enjoy every day. Registering in the SSS is a minor inconvenience in todays day and age.

22. That it’s better than mandatory military service like some countries have.

23. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/vz95h6/are_you_registered_for_the_draft/

24. It’s just a holdover from a bygone time. Unless the world goes to hell again it will never be used.

25. How do you feel that most countries have a mandatory service?

26. Not a big deal at all, it’s just something you do and never really think about it again.

27. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with my then-girlfriend in mid-2012.

    I asked, “Who are you voting for?”

    “I’m not voting, I’m not that interested in politics.”

    “I didn’t think I was either, until I went to get my motorcycle endorsement.”

    “What does that have to do with it?”

    “I’d just turned 18, so I show up to the DMV, do all the actual motorcycle related stuff, then it’s time to actually generate my new drivers license. The…officer? In North Carolina DMV employees wear LEO-like uniforms. Asked me if I wanted the state or the seal or the lighthouse or the plane as a background, asked me if I wanted to be an organ donor, and then said something I’ll never forget:

    *Okay, we’ll just register you for Selective Service…there we go…would you like to register to vote?*

    And I said “Uh yeah!””

    And that was how my ex girlfriend learned Selective Service exists.

    She started posting political messages on Facebook after that, whatever Facebook’s equivalent of retweeting campaign messages is.

28. They wouldn’t be able to institute the draft now. I truly believe the pushback would be too extreme and it would politically be a major failure, which the weak politicians can’t handle.

    As a woman I do wish we also had to register. It’s only fair.