Conscription

Why was the popular protest movement of the late 1960's and 1970's so strong?

Conscription is murder. Compulsion is slavery. Confiscation is looting. Calling them anything else is just using glorified names. Freedom is free, and it cannot be gained or maintained through sacrifices of anybody's freedoms.

This essay refutes the argument that the presence of universal military service in a country deters that country's involvement in future wars. Quite the contrary, conscription tends to magnify the kinds of conflicts in which a nation's troops become embroiled.

This essay demonstrates a direct correspondence between the volunteer nature of a country's military and its effectiveness on the battlefield, as well as a direct relationship between the presence of military conscription and extremely high wartime casualties.

This essay uses the principles of individual rights, negative obligations, and market specialization to demonstrate how forced military service is incompatible with a truly free country; there is no true ethical or political obligation for a person to fight in a war.

Draft proponents sometimes argue that the military would create promising and simultaneously socially beneficial careers for many youths across the country. But this is not in fact the case, as the ethical status of such "careers" is equivalent to slavery.

Some frequently asked questions about the possibility of an imminent military draft.