Quote Originally Posted by wm
The idea of national service as a duty of citizenship is fundamentally at odds with the principles that led to the formation of America, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. That document identified rights as fundamental, not duties. If the nation's principle value set is based on rights, which logically implies that one is free (not obliged), then obligatory national service is fundamentally unfair and unjust. I make this last assertion because 1. an obligation limits one's rights to life, liberty, and pursuing happiness, and 2. justice and fairness define each other.
I think freedom is frequently inaccurately equated with choice. In essence, freedom is the absence of coercion and fraud. While I agree that rights are natural and inalienable, this acknowledgement comes with implicit understandings. We accept traffic laws to enable freedom of travel on America's roads. We accept regulations on goods and services to protect consumers against fraud and criminal conduct. This is not a reduction of freedom because no man is endowed with a right to endanger or defraud others, which are forms of coercion. Rights are endowed, but freedom is empowered. And this is accomplished through the proper construction of government. It is not an obligation to obey the moral laws of a legitimate political authority. It is through such obedience that freedom is practiced because the citizen refrains from coercive and fraudulent activities against others. Without law, there would be anarchy. By consequence, anarchy becomes rule of the strong through coercion and fraud, and hence dictatorship. Law and obedience to it is the foundation of liberty. National service is just as well not an obligation, but an exercise in freedom.