[MineralMan]

"You seem to be advocating the same thing Clinton did, going somewhere else (England in his case) to escape it."

And there, I think, is the rub in all of this. I've heard many libertarians take a similar position. They claim not to feel any obligation to the nation or to society in general.

Thus, if they don't recognize a particular conflict as "necessary for the national security," they can simply take off or send their "grandchildren" somewhere else. It's OK, though, because they're true patriots.

Then, at the same time, many of them decry the laxity of our border defense. Seems to me that a Universal Service program could supply the manpower needed to patrol and enforce our immigration laws, as well as doing all those other things that need doing, like filling the darned potholes in every highway in the USA.

[ThinkDifferent]

Seems to me that a Universal Service program could supply the manpower needed to patrol and enforce our immigration laws, as well as doing all those other things that need doing, like filling the darned potholes in every highway in the USA.

If potholes need filling, why can't the proper authorities simply offer a competitive wage for those jobs? Why must they be empowered to compel people to perform those tasks at gunpoint?