Lew, watching that trailer reminded me of Rothbard's chapter in For a New Liberty on involuntary servitude. While some like to think slavery was ended by St. Lincoln, one institution in society still retained a legal right to compel people to work and fight against their will. This organization is the federal government.
Call it conscription and it's no longer slavery. Taxation, not theft.
Rothbard's analysis, however, goes deeper. Though the draft officially ended in 1973 the government still had the authority to prevent people from leaving the military (along with the Selective Service--I wonder how selective it really is...)
The best way to understand the morality of the government's actions is to think as though it were a private company.
As Rothbard puts it, "in what other occupation in the country are there severe penalties, including prison and in some cases execution, for "desertion," i.e., for quitting the particular employment? If someone quits General Motors, is he shot as sunrise?"
