Before I give my views on the draft I need to let you know my background. I joined the army 8 days after my 18th birthday. It was during the Iranian hostage crisis, Carter was the president, the cold war was very chilly. I spent most of my 12 years wearing the uniform in the Texas Army National Guard. I love the army, I have the utmost respect for all of the men and women who wear the uniform today. It is an all volunteer force and all of the people in the armed services today have enlisted or reenlisted since 9-11 so they knew they were going to war. They are brave Americans and I thank them every time I see one.

But I am here to talk about the draft. Walter E. Williams, being an economist has a good economic reason not to draft people into the military. He cites his own example as a good loss to the economic system when labor is taken from the workforce and put into a uniform. But my arguments are based on what I see as the libertarian views on the draft. There are two reasons, either one of which is good enough not to have a draft, together they are a knockout blow to forced military service.

First, where does a just government derives its power from the consent of the governed. Each of us gives up a small amount of the power we have to form the government. However a person can not give up a power that is not owned by that person. While I have the right to self defense, I do not have the right to compel another person to help me in that defense. That is what the draft is, compelling a person to help defend the state.

If I feel there is someone coming down the street intent on doing me harm I have the right to defend myself. I can ask you to help and you have the right to agree to decline. I can not hand you an M-16 and force you to defend me and my property. I f I can not do that, where does my government get the right to do that? It can't!

Second, what do we call a person who is forced to work when and where we chose without a choice? There is a word for that in English. That person is called a slave. I hate to use that term because in tends to diminish the suffering of those who endured real slavery, but I can not think of another term to describe a person taken from his home, given a uniform, told what to do, when and where to do it and punished if he fails to do it.

Our military is here to guard out freedoms, How can we guard freedom, by making our citizens slaves of the state?