Sorry but "right" and "conscription" do not belong in the same sentence. If a law is involved, then "right", which is a freedom of action in a social situation, is not possible. The most you could have is some kind of privilege left to join up despite a force to be drafted. A law is a threat of the use of force to make some group to act or not do act. There are no rights involved in laws, just ending in the use of guns if resisted.

I served for six years in the Air Force on several overseas combat deployments. We were basically 50/50 men to women, the women could do almost everything the men could with the exception that I'm still against women in ground combat operations. It's not a derogatory statement about their ability, it's the fact that a male will generally take unusual risks to protect a woman that they wouldn't necessarily do for another male - often to the detriment of theirselves and the rest of the unit. For non-combat support jobs (which is at least 90% of the military), I have zero problem with it.

I also think it's only "fair" - women have long fought for the right to serve in the military, and now to serve in ever-increasing capacities and want things like the post-9/11 GI bill with basically unlimited education benefits, excellent training, etc. With that comes the obligation that they should also have the same risks as a male.

We are not alone in that - most countries around the world (other than Muslim ones) have women serve in similar capacities, in Israel, it's all-hands-on-deck for national defense.

It doesn't take a penis to pump gas in a plane... You don't need one supporting a 7000 person floating ship at sea, etc. If anything, it helps morale and stabilizes the military community.

Agree, but a note worth mentioning: the public was in favor of both Korea and Vietnam: Korea for the duration and Vietnam until Johnson made it into a money-makey scheme for the industrial war complex.

Korea ended in an armistice because the US was tired of war and you had a lot of Democrats (who were actually Communist sympathizers - McCarthy was dead on) who actively made it difficult to prosecute that war. In addition, it was really the US against both China and Russia at that point in a battle of attrition.

Vietnam was a classic case of armchair quarterbacking and why it is a bad idea to have civilians running military operations. The US was winning the war early on, but a change in Presidents and the subsequent priorities and focus on "diplomacy" - the nonsense of every Democratic politician. It was at that point that the hippy protesters like Barbara Streisand started coming out of the woodwork. One of my favorite John Wayne movies was "Green Berets" where he deals with the whole Vietnam issue very pointedly.

I agree in principle, but if that idea were law it would mean that the US can't carry out its treaty commitments to defend countries most Americans don't care about saving.

Thus I would do what many European nations have done, and require a vote of the American people, preferably repeated every 10 years or so, for any treaty of alliance with other countries. Or better yet, for any treaty at all (as the Swiss have it). This would be in addition to, not instead of, approval by the president and Senate.

I am sorry but speaking from personal experience, I am against women in combat. In the late 80's when I was in, we had several women in our unit. It was a normal occurance for them to be unable to preform simple tasks that the men would then have to pickup the slack on.
Additionally they then would be rotated back for showers every other day, whereas the men would be in the field indefinitely with no shower rotation.

Those who would follow that strategy are already doing it. This is why 30% of all births in the US are now out-of-wedlock. (If Planned Parenthood were ever put out of business that number would grow very quickly.)

There is also a large correlation between this practice and membership in a certain ethnic group. Whether that is a coincidence is an interesting question.

I can well imagine that Planned Parenthood would some lose business.

I feel that if a country is going to conscript, it should do so from an equal cross section of society - doesn't matter if they're male, female, or somewhere in the middle; Gay Straight, Bi, etc... it DOESN'T MATTER!!!

And honestly - the whole division between men being eligible for combat and women being excluded - are crap. If you can measure up to the standards for the job, what you have between your legs should be the LAST consideration. Anything else is patronizing, and says "you really ARE a second class thing, that someone else has to protect and watch over", or worse", You're not WORTHY to defend your country like someone else is"...

Having served (volunteered, because that was the only way to get in,) one thing I got from my service was the requirement to go from needy, whiney kid to self-sufficient and determined adult. It taught me to be responsible, that my word is worth something, and that I had to make it on my own, without relying on someone else (parents, hubby, whatever)... The other thing it taught me, of course, was (to quote a drill sergeant I remember surprisingly fondly) was "Life ain't fair, sometimes it sucks, so suck it up, buttercup, and get it done". (We were talking about this very subject last night...)

What I see with those lacking this "experience" are, in general, a generation of those who either learned this some other way, or (sadly) never learned it at all.

Sure, the draft sucks. Being forced to do something you don't want to do sucks. But sometimes... you gotta do something you don't like. And doing so may benefit you in ways you don't see. (Or to quote another famous Drill Sergeant line - "No Pain, No Gain.")

Hanging over me way back when was a threat that became reality almost as fast as I lost that student deferment in my sophomore year due to being too sophomoric. I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or what courses I wanted to take.
Uncle Sam had an idea and scooped me up in a heartbeat. I wound up in the Marines as a supply clerk.
I never went to Vietnam but Parris Island was as bad as it was in Full Metal Jacket. Believe a drill instructor's fist slammed into me at least five times. I got tough, though..
The first time I felt fully free in since my late teen years was during that last taxi ride to the airport as a corporal with an honorable discharge.
I got out two months early on a "school cut" and went back to college paid for by the G.I; bill.
I figured out what I wanted to do and two years later I graduated,
An honorary discharge and a piece of paper that states that my last promotion was under meritorious conditions DOES look good on a resume..
I was lucky. Things did not turned out the same way for everyone who got drafted during the 60s.
A thing to remember about that Vietnam black wall monument is that not every name on it was a volunteer.

How is that not involuntary servitude?