As a self-proclaimed feminist who wants women in the armed services to become Generals, Admirals, and combat pilots, he could have declared that women, too, must register for the draft on their 18 th birthdays. This would have opened the door to true equality for women. But Mr. Clinton, who himself lied to avoid the draft and then organized demonstrations in Europe that encouraged North Vietnam to go on killing Americans rather than sue for peace, took the third option. He continued to impose on young American males the same threat of conscription he cheated to evade himself. And he continued a policy of sex discrimination as pernicious as black slavery in the antebellum South.
Slavery exists when human beings become property.
Slavery in the old South was a lifelong nightmare. But what is it when a young man is packed off to a Vietnam War where, for those assigned to walk point, survival in combat was measured in seconds. All those who died wearing the American uniform in Vietnam deserve our highest honor and respect. But it would be a profound education for our nation if some mark like an asterisk were placed beside the names of those on the Vietnam Memorial who died as draftees, as conscripts, in a meat grinder war our troops were not permitted to win. And that, of course, is the dirty little secret of the draft.