[amosmoses]

Uhh. Raise an Army? Perhaps Coca Cola could do that. Coca Cola patches instead of U.S. flags? Of course, Corporations that want to do biz in Communist China might not be the best guardians of our national interest.

[LibertarianInExile]

Saw that objection coming.

The only time we've ever had to look to government to draft an army the wars weren't declared. Every other time we've raised them, there were people lining up to serve. Voluntary works. Look at the relative bang for the buck, and it becomes apparent that a voluntary force is generally superior to a conscript one.

The same is true for public vs. private policing. I'd hazard a guess that more crime is deterred by rent-a-cops than the city's finest any day of the week.

[Da Bilge Troll]

If I were to make a list of the legitimate purposes of government, it would be a short list. Of course defense is one of them but controlling our lives is not.

Government is an invention of man. It is not a force of nature that we simply must accept, like a hurricane or an earthquake. Government was developed out of anarchy because it can make us stronger. But government is a weapon, the embodiment of force, and must be tightly chained or it may destroy us. The road from anarchy to tyranny is a subtle transition from common rights to central power. Even small steps toward tyranny, even when necessary, still carry us closer to it. It is not something I take lightly.