Concerning conscription, here is the only question that matters:
If a political leadership class cannot rally willing volunteers for their cause, should we allow them to conscript the unwilling?
Two follow-ups:
Is their cause a national cause? Because so often, the answer is no.
Who should define a national cause, the political leadership or individual families with husbands and sons? If the families agree with the politicians, they may volunteer. If not, leave them alone, you murderous egomaniacs.
When I first discussed conscription, I used the US involvement in Vietnam as an example. As I asked then, can anyone tell me the US national interest? I don't think so.
I am talking to you, Lyndon Johnson. And you, Vladimir Putin. And you, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. These monsters want to force others to die for their respective causes. And since hundreds of thousand of Ukrainian men have fled the draft, Zelenskyy wants their current countries of residence to ship them back to his death machine.
Why? For Zelenskyy's glory of course.
These men have made the decision that Ukraine is not worth fighting and dying for. Who can say they are wrong? Many young American men made a similar decision about Vietnam. And with all due hindsight, they were absolutely correct to do so. Who should have died for Lyndon Johnson's murderous pipe dream?
I don't think conscription would work today with American young men. What, with their participation trophies and social media and video games. But just as an exercise, can you imagine any cause where the American leadership class would be willing to draft young men to fight and die? I think a good number of them, the leadership class, would be willing to draft young men to fight for Ukraine. But if Lindsey Graham wants Americans to fight for Ukraine, give him a gun.
Thankfully, we have a willing and able, professional warrior class. Let them do their thing. Ripping some kid away from his video game is not going to help.
But this post is not so much about the unlikely idea of a twenty-first century American draft. It is about the concept of conscription itself. I have come to believe that it is never justified, and most often immoral. I mean, can we consider confederate conscription moral? How about Nazi Germany conscription? If American families were unwilling to volunteer their children to fight the Nazis, then we should have stayed out of it. For what it's worth, I do think Americans would have volunteered. Enough anyway. Just as we do today.
Here's another question: How many Russians would volunteer to invade Ukraine? I'm guessing it would be close to zero.
Point is, whose decision is this? Should we allow corrupt politicians, with questionable motives, to make this decision? Or should we retain this decision for individual families to make?