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Ron Paul on the 13th Amendment - Involuntary Servitude...the DraftRon Paul on the 13th Amendment - Involuntary Servitude...the Draft
On Reinstating the Draft By Ron Paul
Much has been made by the new administration of the idea of national service and volunteerism. While service to one’s community is certainly admirable, it is not the federal government’s place to “encourage” or promote volunteerism. Moreover, there are troubling signs that national service could transition from voluntary to mandatory, or de facto mandatory, such as the requirement of service in order to be granted a diploma, or something along those lines.
Involuntary servitude was supposed to be abolished by the 13th Amendment, but things like Selective Service and the income tax make me wonder how serious we really are in defending just basic freedom. The income tax enslaves workers for nearly 4 months out of a year by garnishing what amounts to all their wages in that period of time. A military draft could demand your very life, without your consent. This should be unthinkable in a free society.
Proponents of reinstating the draft claim it is needed to protect liberty from enemies abroad. But what about the enemies of liberty right here at home? I am convinced that there are more threats to American liberty within the 10 mile radius of my office on Capitol Hill than there are on the rest of the globe. If we would get our troops off of foreign soil, those perceived enemies of our liberty abroad are much more likely to stand down and let us be. We have more than enough troops to mind our own business and defend ourselves. It is only for world domination that we have a troop shortage.
Nevertheless, some think recruiting for our military is too low and that the younger generation will not answer the call of duty willingly, and must be drafted by force. I take extreme exception to this characterization of young people today.First of all, I believe they correctly see that foreign policy, as unpopular as it has been under Bush, is not significantly changing under Obama, and has little, if anything, to do with defending the United States, and certainly not the Constitution. Second, many see friends and acquaintances who have voluntarily enlisted, and have taken note of how the soldier, the veteran is treated. Perhaps rather than blaming younger generations for being selfish, older generations should remember their promises to those who volunteer for military service and be mindful of how they are treated. Every homeless vet by the side of the road, every suicide, every report of substandard conditions in veteran hospitals is a sign of how we let our military down. Perhaps we should look to those issues if we have problems with military recruitment, rather than to trample freedom in the name of protecting it.
If that is not enough reason, consider that most in the military are against a draft. There is a vast difference between serving alongside another volunteer, and serving alongside a reluctant conscript. Americans need to be on the lookout for any propaganda trying to ease us back into the draft. Too often a flawed foreign policy prompts the need for a draft. Abolishing the Selective Service is one thing we could do to counter those efforts.
On Reinstating the Draft By Ron Paul
(Texas Straight Talk, Feb. 16, 2009) <http://www.house.gov/apps/blog/tx14_paul/> "With the increased need for more troops for the administration’s expanded military adventurism in Afghanistan, as well as the continuing movement to conscript young people not eligible for military service to serve the government at home, can anyone doubt that this bill [ HR 1388 - National Service ] is only the down payment on a much larger program of mandatory national service?"
Statement in Opposition to HR 1388 - National Service Statement of Congressman Ron Paul, March 18, 2009 United States House of Representatives http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/tx14_paul/natservoppose.shtml Also Read:
"Conscription is slavery, plain and simple. And it was made illegal under the 13th amendment, which prohibits involuntary servitude."
3000 American Deaths in Iraq
Hon. Ron Paul of Texas, U.S. House of Representatives Speeches And Statements, Jan. 5, 2007 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=532 "... many in Congress would rather draft more young bodies than rethink our role as world policeman and bring some of our troops home."
Rethinking the Draft By Ron Paul
Texas Straight Talk, Nov. 27, 2006 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=488 "Justifying conscription to promote the cause of liberty is one of the most bizarre notions ever conceived by man! Forced servitude, with the risk of death and serious injury as a price to live free, makes no sense."
Conscription - The Terrible Price of War
Hon. Ron Paul of Texas, U.S. House of Representatives Speeches And Statements, Nov. 21, 2003 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=616 "Shutting down Selective Service will ... end a program that violates the very principals of individual liberty our nation was founded upon."
Abolish Selective Service
Hon. Ron Paul of Texas, U.S. House of Representatives Speeches And Statements, Jan. 30, 2003 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=659 "Despite the threat posed to the very existence of the young republic by the invading British Empire, Congress ultimately rejected the proposal to institute a draft. If the new nation of America could defeat what was then the most powerful military empire in the world without a draft, there is no reason why we cannot address our current military needs with a voluntary military."
Say No to Conscription
Hon. Ron Paul of Texas, U.S. House of Representatives Speeches And Statements, May 9, 2002 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=711 "... the philosophy which inspired America’s founders, expressed in the Declaration of Independence, is that individuals possess natural, God-given rights which cannot be abridged by the government. Forcing people into military service against their will thus directly contradicts the philosophy of the Founding Fathers. A military draft also appears to contradict the constitutional prohibition of involuntary servitude."
Statement Opposing Military Conscription
Hon. Ron Paul of Texas, U.S. House of Representatives
Speeches And Statements, March 20, 2002 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=718 "The draft ... is a blatant attack on the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits involuntary servitude. If the federal government fought individual states over the legalization of private-sector slavery, then should it not also be equally compelled to decry public-sector servitude? Of course it should, but an elastically interpreted 'living Constitution' makes all sorts of public schemes safe from legal reproach."
Conscription Policies
Hon. Ron Paul of Texas, U.S. House of Representatives Speeches And Statements, June 13, 2001 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=778 "Our nation does have a problem with recruitment and retention -- reasons often cited for keeping the draft registration. Countless surveys, though, have found these problems come not from a lack of patriotism, but because more and more Americans are frustrated with our foreign policy and the increasing number of 'police actions' that put soldiers in harm's way without a national interest at stake."
Draft not needed for protection of liberty
Selective Service should be eliminated, funds to Veterans Administration By Ron Paul, Texas Straight Talk, Aug. 23, 1999 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=111 ".... we see school districts around the nation requiring volunteerism or public service as a condition of graduation ...The role of government is to protect life and liberty from initiations of force or fraud. By preventing government from drafting our children into a system of social engineering..."
Legislation focuses on individual liberty
By Ron Paul, Texas Straight Talk, Aug. 25, 1997 http://www.ronpaullibrary.org/document.php?id=8 US Justice Dept. Says NO to Lawsuits Until Obama Administration Rewrites FOIA GuidelinesUnited States Department of Justice Say NO to Lawsuits Until President Obama's
Administration Rewrites Freedom of Information Act Guidelines
"I like to think of the Freedom of Information Act as democracy’s x-ray machine, because it gives us an inside look at the internal machinery of government so we can identify the waste, fraud, abuse and corruption that leave our nation dangerously weak, inefficient, and ineffective. Unfortunately the x-ray machine is not working as well as it should, and important information about the health of our democracy is being hidden from view."
—Caroline Fredrickson, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office, Freedom of Information Act Before the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives ('07)
Read:
"... the Justice Department requested a 90-day stay so it could have more time to review three torture memos that we’ve specifically re-requested for release through our five-year-old Freedom of Information Act request."
Source:
OLC: We’ll See You in Court!
(Blog of Rights - ACLU, Feb. 13, 2009) http://blog.aclu.org/2009/02/13/olc-well-see-you-in-court/ ACLU - National Security: Freedom of Information/Government Secrets American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org/natsec/foia/index.html ACLU - Government Documents on Torture Freedom of Information Act
American Civil Liberties Union [ documents the government did not want the general public to read ] http://www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/gen/13794res20050429.html News:
Obama administration defending Bush secrets
Justice Department seeks to hold back lawsuits as FOIA rules rewritten (MSNBC, AP, Feb 16, 2009) [Freedom of Information Act] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29225492/ Research Link:
FAS Project on Government Secrecy: Obama Administration Documents on Secrecy Policy
(Federation of American Scientists) http://www.fas.org/sgp/obama/index.html Watch:
YouTube - LawWebTV: Freedom of Information Act
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWzeAomhQjU Federal Trade Commission Staff Report Feb '09 Online Behavioral Advertising PrinciplesFederal Trade Commission Staff Report: February 2009
Online Behavioral Advertising Principles
" ... the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ".... has periodically examined the consumer privacy issues raised by online behavioral advertising – which is the practice of tracking an individual’s online activities in order to deliver advertising tailored to his or her interests."
Source:
FTC Staff Revises Online Behavioral Advertising Principles
Federal Trade Commission February 12, 2009 http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/02/behavad.shtm February 2009 Staff Report - Self-regulatory Principles For Online Behavioral Advertising Behavioral Advertising Tracking, Targeting, and Technology "... failed to protect consumers ..." — Jeff Chester, executive director at Center for Digital Democracy
Source:
Consumer groups: FTC ad policy falls short
Groups say commission largely adhered to current policy of self-regulation (MSNBC, Feb 12, 2009) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29164921/ The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) "...does not find existing self-regulatory efforts to be sufficient."
Source: Neither a Retreat Nor an Imprimatur By Alissa Cooper
(Center for Democracy and Technology, Blog Feb. 13, 2009) http://blog.cdt.org/2009/02/13/neither-a-retreat-nor-an-imprimatur/ Center for Democracy and Technology.
Works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age http://www.cdt.org Federal Trade Commission (FTC) February 2009 "released voluntary guidelines for Internet advertising and behavioral targeting. ...'There is no means to enforce the guidelines, and Commissioners Jon Leibowitz and Pamela Jones Harbour warned that they are insufficient to ensure consumers' privacy.'"
Source:
Trade Commission Issues Issue Voluntary Guidelines
for Online Tracking, Targeting, and Advertising (Electronic Privacy Information Center, News, Feb. 12, 2009). Electronic Privacy Information Center
Established to focus public attention on emerging ivil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. http://epic.org Related Articles:
Google to match online adverts with web users' viewing habits
By Maija Palmer in London and Alan Rappeport in New York (Financial Times, March 12 2009) [ Behavioural targeting AOL, Google, Yahoo raises privacy concerns ] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/177c9258-0ea7-11de-b099-0000779fd2ac.html FTC warns of "day of reckoning" for online advertisers
By Nate Anderson (Ars Technica, Feb. 12, 2009) [ Federal Trade Commission report Feb. 2009 ] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/ftc-warns-of-day-of-reckoning-for-online-advertisers.ars Advertisers join forces for online self-regulation
By Nate Anderson, (Ars Technica, Jan 13, 2009) [ Four US advertising trade groups have joined forces
to self-regulate behavioral advertising online ] http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/01/advertisers-join-forces-for-online-self-regulation.ars Every Click You Make - Internet Providers Quietly Test
Expanded Tracking of Web Use to Target Advertising By Peter Whoriskey (Washington Post, Apr. 4, 2008) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040304052.html FTC Staff Issues Proposed Self Regulatory Principles
for Behavioral Advertising and Seeks Comment Posted By Timothy P. Tobin (Privacy Law Blog, Dec. 20, 2007) TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ajojx4 / TinyURL Preview: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ajojx4 Afghanistan Civilian Casualties in Military OperationsAfghanistan Civilian Casualties in Military Operations
"... when raids go wrong they end up killing Afghan civilians..." Source: Afghans threaten troops over civilian deaths
Villagers angered over loss of life, predict spike in violence if raids continue (MSNBC, AP, Jan. 31, 2009) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28950166/ "More than 80% of Afghan civilian deaths today caused by the US/NATO are due to close air support attacks. "
—Prof. Marc W. Herold
Source:
Afghan Civilians killed by U.S/NATO Actions since 2006
The Matrix of Death: (Im) Precision of U.S Bombing and the (Under) Valuation of an Afghan Life By Prof. Marc W. Herold (Global Research, Oct. 9, 2008) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10506 Marc Herold, Ph.D. University Of New Hampshire: Documents - Afghanistan
- Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States' Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan - The Afghan Victim Memorial Project http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold “Any civilian casualty is one civilian casualty too many ... And every effort that can be made must be made to ensure the safety and welfare of the civilian population where military operations are conducted.”
—Kai Eide, UN Special Representative in Afghanistan and head
of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Source: UN calls for probe into reports of Afghan civilian casualties in military operation
(UN News Centre, Aug. 23, 2008) http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27795&Cr=Afghan&Cr1=UNAMA Read:
UNAMA Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict - 2208
(United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Nations - Documents - English - PDF) (http://www.unama-afg.org/docs/_UN-Docs/_human%20rights/2009/UNAMA_09february-Annual%20Report_PoC%202008_FINAL_11Feb09.pdf/) "...pro-government forces are killing more Afghan civilians than are their Taliban foes...."
Source:
Losing Afghanistan, One Civilian at a Time
By Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann (Washington Post, Nov. 18, 2007) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111601203.html "The issue of civilian dogged the U.S. led coalition forces from the beginning of its intervention..."
Source:
Afghan civilian deaths damaging NATO
By Carlotta Gall and David E. Sanger (International Herald Tribune, May 13, 2007) http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/13/africa/taliban.php Watch:
Harrowing video film backs Afghan villagers'
claims of carnage caused by US troops (Times - UK, Sept. 8, 2008) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4699077.ece Listen:
Civilian Casualties Stir Angst In Afghanistan
By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson (National Public Radio, (All Things Considered, Aug. 27, 2008) [ Afghan civilians, many of them children, were killed in a joint U.S.-Afghan operation ] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94028683 U.N.: U.S. Led Strike Killed Dozens Of Afghan Children
(National Public Radio. Day to Day, Aug. 27, 2008) [ Alex Chadwick talks to Washington Post's Candace Rondeaux about civilian deaths in Afghanistan. ] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94019631 AIHRC Press Releases:
AIHRC press release on civilian causalities in military operations
in Aziz-Abad village of Shendan District of Hirat province (Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Press Release, Aug. 23 2008) http://www.aihrc.org.af/pre_eng_civil_klng.htm AIHRC expresses its deep regrets and concerns in regard to the
painfulincidents and casualties of innocent civilian occurred on Saturday in province of Nangarhar and Monday in province Kapisa (Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Press Release, Mar. 07, 2007) http://www.aihrc.org.af/pre_eng_7_mar_07.htm AIHRC expresses serious concern on re-occurrence of civilian casualties,
especially of children and women during Coalition military operation against terrorist positions in Kandahar Province (Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Press Release, May 24 2006) http://www.aihrc.org.af/pre_air_bomb_may24_2006.htm Research:
ACLU: The Human Cost - Civilian Casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan
American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org/natsec/foia/search.html Amnesty International Report 2008: Afghanistan
[ Read Abuses by international forces - Killings of civilians ] http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Asia-Pacific/Afghanistan Commonwealth Institute War Report: Afghan Archives - Civilian Casualties
http://www.comw.org/warreport/afghanarchiveciv.html CIVIC Blog: War Victims Monitor
Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict http://warvictims.wordpress.com Doctors Without Borders: Iraq
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/allcontent.cfm?id=36 FAIR - Region: Afghanistan
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=18®ion_id=10 FAIR - Region: Iraq/Civilian and Combatant Casualties
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=18®ion_id=28 HRW Report 2008: Troops in Contact - Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/08/troops-contact-0 Institute for Public Accuracy News Releases: Iran/Afghanistan
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1921 Unknown News: Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq
http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html Wikipedia: Civilian casualties of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_of_the_War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present) * |
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