“They talk about conscription as a democratic institution. Yes; so is a cemetery.” -Meyer London

“Democrats have always been the worst on slavery. ” -Gregory Anthony

The “Universal National Services Act” of 2013 (H.R. 748) was proposed by Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) on February 15, 2013 and referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel on March 6th. The summary is as follows:

“To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or as civilian service in a Federal, State, or local government program or with a community-based agency or community-based entity, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, to provide for the registration of women under the Military Selective Service Act, and for other purposes.” Full.

But the blue team are the good guys, right “liberals”?

The most disgusting manifestation of state power is the draft. The state asserts that you do not own your body or your fate — that you must be sacrificed, if need be, for the always intangible greater good. The fact is that “war is a racket,” according to Smedley Butler, and wars do not occur unless the elites of the aggressor nation believe they have something to gain. To think, the Nuremberg Trials did nothing to delegitimize “just following orders” — your taxes enforce penalties for not killing on command.

As racist and plutocratic as they mostly were, the Founding Patriarchs recognized that standing armies are very dangerous – hundreds of thousands of brainwashed, sexually frustrated and jingoistic men just itching to go kill something. These young men (and sexually threatened women) are inevitably taught that the enemy is subhuman. They yearn for the glory of triumphant bloodshed. War is a force that gives us meaning, to borrow Chris Hedges’ phrase. By contrast, civilians require a helluva compelling reason to set down their work, leave their families and risk their lives forming a militia to defend against aggression (inevitably by a state).

When authentic threats to one’s family or community arise, people don’t sit idle. There is a rifle behind every blade of grass – networked guerilla resistance was enough to deflect and drain the then-superpower U.S. in Vietnam and Afghanistan, it can happen again if necessary. When a community faces real military occupation, conscription is unnecessary — volunteers come by the droves — just look at the Sandinistas, Zapatistas, Hamas or Hezbollah. But they’re terrorists (meaning an armed force that the OECD does not recognize as legitimate), while the Mexican army, Israeli Offense Forces and Contras defend(ed) freedom and justice for all.

This bill can only be intended to curb youth unemployment a’la the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich’s Labor Service) or Civilian Conservation Corps. Keeping the whippersnappers busy also serves to indoctrinate poor, ethnically-oppressed kids before they pick up any dangerous and radical books.

Since Vietnam, dismal economic opportunity for the disenfranchized working class has been sufficient to swell the ranks of the biggest welfare program ever — the armed forces. The corporation-state suppresses labor power, wages and makes capital artificially scarce via a cartelized monetary system and then offers you a great job killing brown people sitting on our natural resources.

Neocon hawks traditionally support conscription, but Democrats have been the marginally dovish party — what gives? The liberals are backing this one because they think it will induce people to do the right thing.

The term “national service” means–

(A) military service; or

(B) civilian service in a Federal, State, or local government program or with a community-based agency or community-based entity that, as determined by the President, is engaged in meeting human, educational, environmental, or public safety needs.

If you reject the legitimacy of nation-states, or that Congress can ever know what is in the “national interest,” too bad. If this bill is passed under the guise of a “New Civilian Conservation Corps” it will prove emphatically that geneticist Dr. Gerald Crabtree was correct, human intelligence is waning and nobody cares enough to read the Porcine, obscuritanist and tyrannical bills anymore.

This section should be particularly irksome to aspiring academics and graduate students:

(b) Post Secondary Students.– A person who is pursuing a standard course of study, on a full-time basis, in a university, technical school or similar institution of learning shall be entitled to have induction under this title postponed until the person–

(1) obtains a certificate or diploma;

(2) ceases to pursue satisfactorily such course of study; or

(3) attains the age of 24.

If the few neurons you’ve managed to preserve despite the TV and aspartame were sufficient to graduate college and you want to immediately enter a PhD program, too bad for you. You’ve got to drop your aspirations and either pick up a gun for peace or engage in some meekly paid community service position for two years (should you survive them with your soul intact). You were always bothered by the fact that federal financial aid came with the stipulation that you sign up for Selective Service. Now you realize how contracts work.

And if you, like RT’s Thom Hartmann, naively think conscription is a democratizing force, ask yourself two questions: Are the wealthy elite capable of shirking “duty”? Is the Israeli Offense Force democratic? Given that polls show most Israelis and Palestinians alike oppose armed conflict, perhaps something about being inducted into the military leads one to look more favorably upon mass murder. Maybe it has something to do with the atrocious, dehumanizing anti-Islam curriculum taught in the military?

You might complain about your post in the new Imperial Service Corps: Is your pay inadequate? Is your assigned position benefitting a local elite rather than those truly in need? Tired of killing women and children? Suck it up, soldier, er, “public servant” – your wages are paid in glory to the fatherland and your self-determination is subject to congressional oversight.

“Now, friends, do you suppose for one minute that this Government is big enough and strong enough and powerful enough to stop men who will not engage in the war because they don’t want the war, because they don’t believe in the war, because they are not going to fight a war for Mr. Morgan? What is the Government going to do with them? They’re going to lock them up — You haven’t prisons enough to lock up all the people.

The ruling classes fight a losing game. The Wall Street men are fighting a losing game. They represented the past and we represent the future.

The future belongs to the young men, who are barely of age and barely realizing their freedom. The future belongs to the young girls and young boys. They must be free from militarism. They must be free from the military yoke. If you want war, help yourself. Fight your own battle. We are not going to fight it for you. “- Emma Goldman, Speeches Against Conscription