Mothers Against the Draft

The Nationalization of the American People

With military manpower shortages arising out of the war in Iraq, there is talk in the air that the federal government might reinstitute the draft, most likely sometime after the November election. Such a prospect should cause every American to reflect not only on the moral and philosophical relationship of the individual person and the state but also on how far Americans have strayed from the true principles of a free society.

The Volunteer Military: Better than a Draft When the United States was founded more than 200 years ago, conscription was not an issue. Indeed, had the Constitution authorized a draft, there would have been no union. Observes historian Jack Franklin Leach, "It is quite likely that had the delegates at Philadelphia extended the power 'to raise and support armies' by adding the phrase, 'by voluntary means, and if necessary by draft upon the male population,' they would have generated insurmountable opposition throughout the country and in state ratifying conventions."(1) Today, however, many federal powers that would once have been inconceivable seem natural, including conscription.	Can Conscription Work? Certainly coercion is morally objectionable. Indeed, we Americans fought a civil war over the issue of compulsory labor. For most Americans that war, and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution which followed it, outlawed involuntary servitude. Yet what is military conscription if not involuntary servitude, a condition totally inimical to the principles of the American Revolution as well as the Civil War? It should be clear that conscription is inconsistent with the principles of a free society.
National Service: The Enduring Panacea Underlying most of the proposals for national service is the elitist assumption that the body politic is morally deficient and needs a federal program to set it straight. Coercion is a dubious means of transmitting such important social values as charity and tolerance or even patriotism. Whether or not the current generation of youth is narcissistic --and that criticism is hardly new--the notion of compulsory compassion is an oxymoron. Ideals cannot be imposed from above; to permanently transform society, values need to move upward, through the family, church, and community organizations, all of which have been undercut by the self-aggrandizing state in recent decades.	What's wrong with National Service Who owns you? That simple question is at the core of any discussion about the morality of national service programs. If you own yourself, then politicians have no right to force you to perform so-called "public service" jobs or to serve in the military. On the other hand, if the government owns you, then politicians have every right to tell you what to do. If they decide your country needs you to fight a war, tutor poor children, or plant trees, then you have no right to refuse -- since your labor belongs to them.
The Libertarian Roots of the All-Volunteer Military The United States Constitution is quite specific with respect to compelling men to join the military. Article I, Section 8 authorizes Congress "To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions." No other justification is specified.	Conscription never a model of fairness NEW YORK -- No idea excites self-styled reformers, whether liberal or conservative, more than calls to revive the military draft. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq last year, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, lobbied for conscription. This spring, it was Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska. Both contend that a draft would spread the burden of sacrifice more justly than our all-volunteer armed forces and make jaded Americans own up to the brutal toll war exacts.
National Service:Utopias Revisited National service has long been a favorite utopian scheme. Eighty years ago William James wrote of the need for a "moral equivalent of war," under which all young men would be required to work for the community.(1) He argued that "the martial virtues, although originally gained by the race through war, are absolute and permanent human goods" and that national service provided a method of instilling those values in peacetime. "Our gilded youths would be drafted off," he wrote, "to get the childishness knocked out of them, and to come back into society with healthier sympathies and soberer ideas."(2)	National Service: A Solution in Search of a Problem Donald J. Everly, the executive director of an organization called the “Coalition for National Service,” believes that “young people have a responsibility to their heritage to contribute a period of service to our land and our people in need.”^[3] It is unclear, however, what portion of the American heritage he refers to and why individuals have “responsibilities” to it (by whose authority? to serve whose ends?).
You Gotta Serve Somebody Touting his national service plan before a group of college students recently, John Kerry intoned: "this election is not just about what we're going to do, it's about what you're going to do." That formulation's a little less eloquent and a little more threatening than Kerry's idol, the other JFK's "...ask what you can do for your country," but such are the times.	No Draft - Ever! At the moment, there are not enough men and women under arms. Troops are being made to stay in Iraq beyond their promised tours. Reservists and national guardsmen have been called up. And the discharges of several thousand military personnel have been delayed; they are now in the armed forces against their will It's still not enough. That's why we're hearing talk of conscription.