ADVERTISEMENT
The controversy is especially potent because of the history attached to the subject. The United States has not used a military draft since the Vietnam era, but the Selective Service system remains in place. According to the Selective Service System, almost all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants aged 18 through 25 are required to register. The agency also states that registration does not mean automatic induction into the military. In the event of a draft, men would be called according to a random lottery number and year of birth, then examined for fitness and considered for deferments or exemptions. That distinction matters politically: Leavitt’s critics treated her words as evidence that the administration was keeping compulsory service in reserve, while the White House response suggested no such decision was being discussed.
The backdrop to all of this is the administration’s intensifying rhetoric around the Iran war. The White House has described the campaign as “Operation Epic Fury,” with an official White House article on March 1 calling it a “precise, overwhelming military campaign” aimed at eliminating what it called an imminent nuclear threat, destroying Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, degrading proxy networks and crippling naval forces. In the People account of Leavitt’s interview, her remarks were framed against that same operation, with the article stating that Trump had launched the assault on February 28 and that Leavitt defended the action as necessary to protect American troops and bases in the Middle East.
ADVERTISEMENT
