Military Conscription ( the “Draft” ) Is Involuntary Servitude and Slavery

It is the position of The Universal Individual Rights Project that military conscription – also known in the U.S. as “the Draft” – amounts to involuntary servitude and therefore slavery, which is still a violation of the 13th Amendment in the United States, and illegal in other civilized nations.

Except for the 16th Amendment – establishing the income tax, which we think is a violation of the 13th Amendment and should be repealed ( it was misrepresented to the American people, as just a tiny tax that wouldn’t lead to the unlimited out of control growth of the federal government ), military conscription is a clear case of involuntary servitude and slavery having existed in the United States in modern times.

How is it any different than the practice of
Shanghaiing , of which Wikipedia says: “Shanghaiing or crimping is the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidation, or violence.”?

It is to the credit of the United States, that we eventually switched to a voluntary system of military enlistment, but some Americans still think that we should keep the Draft available, and force people to register and carry “draft cards” for the event that the United States is directly attacked, or has a dire national emergency and needs to conscript people, who wouldn’t otherwise volunteer for service.

But it is the position of The Universal Individual Rights Project, that, “Any nation that can’t be defended by volunteers, isn’t worth defending.” Please think about that, we think it’s a profound principle.

And in modern times, with the media being available the way it is, we also think that any legitimate government should be able to make their case to convince the people, that voluntary service is important to the safety of their families and their nation, or even so that their nation may continue to exist. In a free nation, there should be plenty of volunteers to defend it, as long as the cause is also legitimate, and not just to support the whims of politicians and their cronies, for money and power, by perpetuating unjust wars all over the world.

We at The Universal Individual Rights Project respect and love our military, which we think is the best military that the world has ever seen, but we also think that it is, in great part, because it is a voluntary military, that this is so. If we were in battle, would we want someone covering our backs, who was forced into service against their will, and might desert at any time? We think not.

The Male-Only Draft May Be Unconstitutional, but Conscription Itself Is Unjust