Free For All - The Free Liberal Blog: Pro-peace, Pro-slavery?

July 2008

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Thanks to Wally Conger,in his post on Selective Service's test of their ability to administer a draft, for this great quote from Jerome Tuccille's 1970 book Radical Libertarianism:

“The military draft must be regarded as the most brutal and unjust government institution in existence today. For here it is not a question of men’s pocketbooks and property being plundered by government; life itself — existence, the most valuable gift man possesses, without which all other freedoms are impossible — is under direct attack. Libertarians should align themselves with draft resisters throughout the country. They should set up picket lines around the draft boards; lend encouragement and moral and physical support to all young men who decide not to be inducted.”

I second Conger's call for friends of liberty to began organizing now against a return of the draft. A good place to start is by supporting the heroic work of the Center on Conscience and War.

Sadly, some in the anti-war community, including some libertarians, have joined the calls to return a draft on the grounds like that our politicians are less likely to engage in war-making if their children are likely to be sent to the front lines. There are serveral flaws in this argument.

First, conscription does not stop the warfare state. The draft did not stop Wilson from involving the US in World War I, Roosevelt from maneuvering to get the US involved in World War II, Truman from intervening in Korea, and LBJ from intervening in Vietnam. In fact, by lowering the cost of raising an army, a draft could lead to more wars.

A draft does not guarantee that the children of politicians will ever see combat. More likely the sons and daughters of Congressmen, Senators,and Presidents will get to play soldier in some comfy base far from any actual combat.

Unless we are going to extend the draft age to 100 and make Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen eligible, a draft does not directly punish those who started the war. Instead, it punishes their children. I would think that most libertarians would agree that children should not be punished for their father's sins. (Thanks to Matt Barganier for first pointing this out.)

Most importantly, advocacy of a draft, for whatever reason, is immoral. It is tough to think of a more unlibertarian policy than the draft. Libertarians who advocate a draft in the name of peace are doing long-term damage to the cause of peace and freedom by abandoning the principled defense of liberty in favor of advancing the taken of someone else liberty in order to achieve our goals. The alleged friends of peace who support conscription are no better than the neocons.

I wonder why pro-draft anti-war advocates don't agitate for other "anti-war" restrictions on liberty. For example, how about an automatic increase in tax rates any time the US launches a military action against a country who has not attacked the US. This could cause the US public to look much more skeptically on politicians who aggregate for war, since they would now be agitating for an automatic tax increase. Could it the reason most "pro-draft/anti-war" advocates don't support war taxes because they are above draft age but still pay taxes?