It has become quite clear that we are living in George Orwell’s state of perpetual warfare, and that the current Administration intends to get us into new wars because the old ones were not providing enough profit and distraction any more. At some point America’s youth will stop signing up for these adventures. But, the government has a plan for that.
Re-enacted under Carter, perpetuated under Republicans and Democrats ever since, our youth continue to be required by law to register for the draft. At the snap of their fingers, the government can force every young male (I leave aside for now the sexism in that, now that we have plenty of females in the military) in America into camps and force them to do the government’s bidding in America or around the world on pain of imprisonment or death. This has been explained through the years as being a “precaution to protect our freedom.” If freedom equaled slavery, that might be true. In reality, it is a preparation to strip away freedom in a totally comprehensive manner. Most voters don’t care, because the scheme is cleverly aimed at 18 to 26 year olds. That group tends not to vote much, and older folks, free from the threat themselves, tend to think it is fine to enslave younger people to serve the whims of their elders.
Our Constitution forbids involuntary servitude. In a supposed democracy, common sense dictates that a government that wishes to indulge in war should be required to persuade the citizenry to participate. Our government, in contrast, has repeatedly demonstrated under Republicans and Democrats alike that it will use transparent propaganda to justify a rush to war without regard to the Constitutional requirements for war. Indeed, it seems that almost everyone, and certainly the Supreme Court, has lost track of what the Second Amendment was really about. See wp.me/… Originally, if the feds wanted to engage in a war they had to issue a call to the states to deliver up the state militias. In the war of 1812, some states refused the call, with their governors stating that the President had not demonstrated that the requirements for such a call-up had been satisfied. The Second Amendment was intended as a control on standing armies, not a guarantee of the right of every lunatic and would-be felon to carry firearms. Now we have a huge standing military, we don’t bother to declare wars, and we allow the likes of Trump to attack sovereign governments and start World War III at a whim.
The time to react to such usurpations is not in the heat of the moment, when the nation goes collectively insane and buys into the propaganda of the day. It is in advance, when there is time to reveal lies as lies and to engage in rational argument. That means taking away the government’s ability to enslave our youth at whim. It means disassembling the apparatus of the military draft and requiring that all the registration files be destroyed. It means declaring that having a system where young men can be forced to participate in military operations against their own people or be imprisoned is un-American. It means declaring that freedom cannot be protected through involuntary servitude.
Write your congresspeople and demand the repeal of draft registration. www.senate.gov www.house.gov Demand that, if they refuse, they explain why subjecting 18 to 26 year old males to this peculiar threat is fair and appropriate. Demand that they explain why, given recent history, we should be okay with the government forcing our people to go abroad to kill foreigners in wars that serve only to increase the real threat to the safety (not freedom — none of the recent wars is about our freedom — but safety) of Americans.
Trump’s most recent war (based on trumped-up charges of a chemical attack that are just like the earlier trumped-up charges of chemical attack under Obama — a chemical attack that was proven to have been by our friendly rebels) is against the force that actually seeks to break the bloodthirsty Al Qaeda and ISIL affiliates who have been using U.S.-supplied weapons to slaughter Syrian civilians. We are supporting terrorists who have created a refugee crisis as the citizens of a once peaceful (if oppressed) nation flee for their safety. The government should not have the power to force our youth to go and engage in such ventures. It is time to take that power away.