White House Draft Dodge

THE DRAFT REGISTRATION debate seemed much simpler to President Reagan back in the days when he bunked on a California ranch. Jimmy Carter revived registration, so candidate Reagan vowed to end it. But the new president claimed last week that new considerations--details such as Soviet imperialism in Eastern Europe--have since ocurred to him, and thus he has hesitated to fulfill his promise.

Reagan must clearly define his stance on registration. If he truly wants to leave behind the confused Carter foreign policy, he should eliminate the program and address the question of defense directly and honestly.

The president himself has at one time or another voiced many of the arguments against registration. Among them: most people do not want a peacetime draft. More American citizens under arms will not improve international stability, and if a legitimate national emergency were to surface, enough would doubtless volunteer to defend the nation. Furthermore, only the Selective Service System is confident that registration would help in mobilization. As Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.) has pointed out, a real crisis requires efficient, well trained soldiers, not lists of 18-year-olds. Even some supporters of draft registration, such as Sen. Sam Nunn (DGa.), acknowledge that cutting waste in the defense budget and improving conditions for professional soldiers are more important than the sign-up program.

Finally, registration represents a transparent attempt to match Russian aggression with American preparedness. It was a meaningless gesture when Carter proposed it after the invasion of Afghanistan, and it remains an embarrassing--if largely forgotten--example of our misguided attempt to stave off the ill-defined communist threat.

Reagan still acknowledges that registration is a hollow symbol, but he now defends it as a deception worth preserving to reassure allies and foes alike that, in his words, good old America is not going soft again. But does draft registration convince anyone that the United States is getting tough? And, more important, will we help preserve world peace merely by being the biggest bully' on the block?

Encouraged by Congress' apparent lack of interest in the issue, Reagan seems content to avoid the question. Instead he could exploit the opportunity to renounce a program that is an inadequate response to the problem of how best to improve the military. The president can abolish registration with an executive order. He should do it now.