Proponents routinely point to the Israeli or Russian experience with female conscription as proof that drafting women need not be a detriment to America’s ability to wage war. It’s true that the Soviets and Israelis, during wars of national survival, implemented female conscription. But an examination of the evidence — not wartime propaganda or action-movie camp — shows that the Israeli and Russian militaries today limit the role of women in ground-combat units after the unforgiving school of war revealed that mixed-gender units were less effective and sustained higher rates of casualties than all-male units.

Knowing these facts, if the United States were to insist on drafting young women and placing them in combat units, it would not only be ineffective, it would be immoral.

Some advocates, however, contend that a gender-neutral draft would give the U.S. a leg up in the pursuit of soldiers in high-skilled, technical domains such as cyberspace. But the draft is a blunt instrument if the goal is to find a small number of highly qualified individuals. Truly, there is no need to register millions of young American women for that purpose: The military could simply recruit those who are both qualified and interested.