Canadian Imperialist Warmongering; A Gratuitous Attack on the Voluntary Military

From: A
Sent: Sat 7/22/2017 7:36 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: essay
Doctor Block, I enjoyed (with IMMENSE pleasure) your essay on the Canadians this morning. I have the same thoughts every time someone mentions a ‘hero’ who has been killed in ‘service to our country’ in Afghanistan or Iraq or Yemen or some other place 7,000 miles from America’s shores. I have great empathy for the man’s family, but why the hell did the man sign on the dotted line to go kill for Uncle Sam those who have not attacked or invaded one square inch in America? Sorry, but he’s not my hero. Sincerely, A

Dear A: You are entirely correct. If there were a military draft, then, at least, there would be some excuse for soldiers to “bomb, burn, rape and kill” innocents abroad. Duress, and all that. I don’t say they would be innocent; only that there would be some mitigating factor involved. But the U.S. now has a voluntary military (Canada too). Why in bloody blue blazes do so many young people travel in this manner to foreign countries? Why does everyone thank them for their service when they do so? I’d like to recommend to you, and to everyone else for that matter, the important work of Laurence M. Vance, on this topic. He has made this case over and over again, brilliantly, that U.S. soldiers engaged in war with countries that have never come within a million miles of attacking our nation, are not exactly heroes.

Almost 50 years ago (I’ve been at this for a while now) I wrote this essay attacking Milton Friedman. I think it is still relevant:

Block, Walter E. 1969. “Against the Volunteer Military,” The Libertarian Forum, August 15, p. 4; http://www.mises.org/journals/lf/1969/1969_08_15.pdf

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5:19 pm on July 22, 2017