Registration for the draft is an essential step to counteract Soviet aggression, two panelists said last night at a forum discussion at the Kennedy School of Government.

Joseph Doyle, assistant Secretary of the Navy, compared the Russian invasion of Afghanistan to the threat of Hitler and Mussolini prior to World War II.

"The country must prepare itself for the kind of war we've never had before, and if we're going to be ready, we're going to have to start getting ready soon," Doyle said.

However, Barry Lynn, chairman of the Committee Against Registration and Draft, quoted a report prepared by the Defense department which showed that instituting the proposed registration program would speed up induction by only four days.

Calling the registration "intrusive, redundant and unnecessary," Lynn added that registration could lead directly to the possibility of sending American troops to the Persian gulf to defend "non-existant" American interests there.

Herbert Pusscheck, associate director of the selective service program, disagreed, saying that registration is not a step toward military preparedness. He added that selective service was not induction, but "merely filling out a card."

Pusscheck also said that a number of studies had concluded that the selective service system currently would be unable to ensure that the wartime demands of inductees could be met.

Patricia Simon, member of the Gold Star Parents for Amnesty Committee, said she was "sickened" by the "complete disregard for life" that the Carter administration exhibited in proposing the draft. Simon said that because women have not been taught that war and killing are necessary, they will be the ones to stop the draft of men. "The war cycle will be ended either by women or by a nuclear holocaust, and I hope you all feel the obscenity of this way of death," she added.