Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks to Marine poolees and their family at recruitment center Segundo, California, Jan. 8, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard B. Uranga)

 

 

 

 

 

By Thomas L. Knapp

You may have only recently heard: As of this coming December, all American males will find themselves “automatically registered,” upon the occasion of their 18th birthdays, for a prospective military draft.

Given current events, that prospect understandably gives off sinister vibes — “but without a draft, who would do the necessary work of murdering Iranian elementary school students and Venezuelan fisherme … er, ‘narco-terrorists?'” —  so you might be surprised to learn that it’s old news.

On December 30, 2024, then US president Joe Biden (or maybe his autopen?) signed the National Defense [sic] Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, which included the relevant provision.

Reaction from the general public: Yawn … hey, the Chargers clinched a wild card playoff berth! OMG, Jimmy Carter died! NDAA? Whazzat?

War has a way of retroactively refocusing the mind, doesn’t it?

In reality, “automatic registration” is even older news, though.

By the time Biden signed that NDAA, 44 states and US territories already “automatically registered” young males with the Selective Service System when they applied for driver’s licenses or state ID cards.

But wait! It’s even older!

For nearly a century, the Social Security Administration has issued identification numbers to nearly every American (these days, that usually happens at birth).

Those numbers are linked to birth years, and the databases associated with those numbers include information on employment so as to track tax payments into an associated Ponzi scheme’s accounts.

In other words, a second “registration” with the Selective Service System has never been necessary for, nor these days would it really even represent an inconvenience to, implementation of a military draft. I’m not an especially skilled computer programming, but even I could probably figure out how to make a database produce a list of names and likely addresses within a given age range.

“Draft registration,” it seems to me, has always been about something else.

It’s not a matter of “military necessity.”

It’s a power play.

It’s a way to remind us who’s in charge.

It’s a threat.

At any moment, the threat implies, our lords and masters can change our status from “tax serf” — generously allowed to make a living (so long as we hand over a substantial cut of every dollar earned), travel (so long as we “show our papers” and submit to groping on demand), etc. — to “military slave,” obligated to shed others’ blood and perhaps our own on command, at risk of death should we obey and on pain of death should we refuse.

While I’m opposed to conscription ON principle, neither it nor the bureaucratic games that come with it are different IN principle from the larger system they’re embedded in. We can have political government or we can have freedom. We can’t have both.

Thomas Kapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism.