Drawing on Murray Rothbard, the author calls conscription indentured servitude: no one may coerce another to fight; hazardous service should be paid, not seized. The debate revived when Britain floated drafts amid Russia fears and a 13-group petition demanded a ban.

New York’s July 1863 draft riots after Lincoln’s Enrollment Act are the cautionary tale: $300 exemptions for the rich, Irish and German immigrants who saw the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure that skipped Union slave states and occupied South, plus more than 100 dead and a sharp drop in the city’s Black population.

Abolitionists such as Garrison often stayed home while others fought. Mises, the piece says, allowed a draft only for true home defense. A YouGov poll of 3,044 Britons found 38% of under-40s would refuse a world war and 30% even an invasion. Unpopular governments, Lew Rockwell is quoted, should not say “we” when they make war.

Conscription is a form of indentured servitude. Murray Rothbard argued that everyone has a natural right to self-defense, but “we have no moral right to use coercion—the bayonet or the revolver—to force someone else to defend us.”

Rothbard argued that if we want men to stand in our defense, “the way to induce people to volunteer for hazardous jobs is to pay them extra as compensation.” And yet, instead of offering a wage that would reward men who sign up willingly, governments rely on force to press conscripts into service. The conscript is,

. . .seized by the authorities and inducted into the armed forces. There his body and will are no longer his own: he is subject to the dictates of the government; and he can be forced to kill and to place his own life in jeopardy if the authorities so decree.

. . .seized by the authorities and inducted into the armed forces. There his body and will are no longer his own: he is subject to the dictates of the government; and he can be forced to kill and to place his own life in jeopardy if the authorities so decree.

This debate recently returned to public attention when it was reported that the United Kingdom is reconsidering conscription due to what the UK government sees as escalating hostilities with Russia.

Campaigners are protesting over the prospect of conscription returning amid mounting Russian threats against Britain. A coalition of 13 British peace and faith organisations has launched a petition demanding the Government rule out military conscription, or any compulsory form of national service involving the armed forces. . . There is currently no conscription in Britain, although concerns about World War 3 have fuelled renewed discussions on how the armed forces could be expanded.

Campaigners are protesting over the prospect of conscription returning amid mounting Russian threats against Britain. A coalition of 13 British peace and faith organisations has launched a petition demanding the Government rule out military conscription, or any compulsory form of national service involving the armed forces. . . There is currently no conscription in Britain, although concerns about World War 3 have fuelled renewed discussions on how the armed forces could be expanded.

For conscription to be even remotely........

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