US Army Secretary John McHugh announced this week that American women will be soon forced to register for the draft upon their 18th birthday just as men are. Army officials said that the move was in the spirit of “true and pure equality,” but with the country wrapped up in dozens of unpopular wars it seems more like equal oppression than equal opportunity.

Currently, US citizens are not forcefully conscripted into military service, but not long ago the draft was a very real thing, and like the flip of a switch it can be imposed at any time that the government fails to recruit enough people for their wars.

A recent ruling to open more combat roles to women inadvertently opened them up for selection for the draft.

McHugh said that universal draft registration will be a normal part of American culture before we know it.

“If we find ourselves as a military writ large where men and women have equal opportunity, as I believe we should,“ he said.

Not only are the wars currently taking place around the world totally inhumane and illegitimate, but the very concept of conscription is nothing more than slavery, forcing someone to do something against their will. Not only that but a mandatory draft would put people into a dangerous situation and force them to kill against their will, which is wrong for both men and women.

With no end in sight for the wars across the Middle East and now Africa, it should be no surprise that bringing the draft back would definitely be on the agenda.

Equality of freedom and equality of opportunity is something that people of all races, genders and ethnicities deserve, and this is a direction that humanity should move in. However, equal oppression is something entirely different, and when one social group is oppressed, we should work to free them from oppression, instead of shifting that oppression onto other social groups and calling it equality, as the US Army has done this week. Instead of celebrating the fact that the draft can be forced onto anyone, we should be working to abolish the concept of a military draft.

Check out Murray Rothbard’s classic essay on conscription below: