Joining the
military requires the forfeiture of certain rights and freedoms as guaranteed
by the Bill of Rights. This is required due to the necessities of a
quasi-separate military society, a fully justified requirement when demanded of
the freely enlisted. But when ordinary American males are required under
penalty of law to enlist in the military and thereby required under penalty of
law to forfeit their guaranteed rights under the Constitution, an
injustice—both legal and moral—is done to American males.
I do not
here advocate the abolition of the draft, but rather the protection of involuntary draftees' constitutional
rights under military law. Ordinary civilian rights and freedoms should be
enshrined in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for those soldiers who
were involuntarily enlisted. Voluntarily enlisted soldiers, who thereby
voluntarily temporarily forfeited certain constitutional rights and freedoms,
would not need to be subject to such UCMJ protections in justice.
It may be
objected that creating two fundamentally different gradations of military
justice would cause a myriad of problems for the command structure as well as for the
Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) of the respective branches. It very likely would.
But the alternative is not to involuntarily deprive ordinary American males of
their constitutional rights and freedoms. Even felons receive due process of
law when they are deprived of certain constitutional rights and freedoms, and
they have irreparably wounded society! The ordinary American male deserves
justice. The UCMJ must incorporate the protections of the Bill of Rights, or
the draft must be permanently abolished. There is no alternative in justice or
law.
