From The Ayn Rand Institute:
IRVINE, CA–Once again a proposal to reinstate the draft is being floated by various politicians. “This would be one of the worst violations of individual rights since slavery,” says Dr. Andrew Bernstein, a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, “because in fact involuntary conscription is a form of slavery.”
In the current proposal, the draftee could opt for community service instead of military service. “This choice exposes the truly hideous premise of the drafters: your life belongs to them, to the state, to the community–to anybody but you. Whether the government forces you to fight and die in Iraq or lets you “volunteer” to clean sewers doesn’t really matter to them–as long as you accept that your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are theirs for the taking.”
How is it possible, asks Dr. Bernstein, “228 years after the Declaration of Independence that the politicians of this country still have not understood or accepted the idea of inalienable individual rights? Those who propose to reinstate the draft do not deserve to be elected or re-elected to any office.”
