Involuntary Servitude in Russia, Ukraine, and the US

by | May 12, 2023

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One of the interesting aspects of the Russia-Ukraine war is that the regimes in both countries have resorted to conscription to get soldiers to “serve their country.” One would think that if a war is just, citizens would not have to be forced to fight in it.

With conscription, the state commands a citizen to report to a military facility, where he is forced to become an employee of the state, at a wage set by the state. Even worse, his forced labor consists of killing people. Thus, conscription is really just a fancy form of military slavery because the citizen is being forced to provide his time and labor in the killing service of the state.

One might be tempted to conclude that the United States is different from Russia and Ukraine. Not so. Just like those two countries, the U.S. government also relies on conscription.

Oh sure, U.S. officials are not currently conscripting people but that simply is because they don’t currently need cannon fodder for one of their incessant foreign wars. They have been successful in inducing a sufficient number of men and women to voluntarily “serve their country.”

But the fact is that there is a system of conscription in place here at home, just as there is in Russia and Ukraine. That’s why young men are required to register for the draft when they reach the age of 18.

If anyone fails or refuses to do so, he will be arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated. That’s what they did to draft resisters during the Vietnam War. Mohammad Ali was a good example of how they target people who refuse to comply with their system of involuntary servitude.

Make no mistake about it: If the Pentagon and the CIA succeed in embroiling the United States in a war with Russia or China or both, U.S. officials will not hesitate to do what Russia and Ukraine are doing. They will immediately resort to conscripting both American men and women to “serve their country.”

If that day comes, there will inevitably be a number of grieving parents who will wonder why they remained passive in the face of U.S. foreign interventionism. That’s assuming, of course, that the wars don’t turn nuclear, in which case those grieving parents will likely be dead.

Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.

Author

  • Jacob G. Hornberger

    Jacob George Hornberger is an American attorney, author, and politician who was a Libertarian candidate for president in 2000 and 2020. He is the founder and president of the Future of Freedom Foundation.