International Man: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently pledged to bring back mandatory national service.

The German government has also mulled reinstating compulsory military service. In Ukraine, it's not uncommon for government agents to forcibly kidnap civilians off the streets and send them to the front.

These are a few recent examples. There seems to be a clear trend of governments preparing their citizens for some sort of mandatory national service.

Is conscription coming back in the West generally and the US in particular?

Doug Casey: The US is now automatically registering all males between 18 and 26 into the Selective Service databank. I'm no fan of conscription. Or the military in general. Of course, it shocks a lot of people when I say I'm not a fan of the military, although I tend to like soldiers as individuals. Don't get me wrong; the military can serve a useful purpose. But when you're in the military, you're not necessarily fighting for the country or "freedom." You're fighting for the government and the people who control it.

Propaganda and jingoism aside, the kind of people who run governments are not the best and the brightest, just the most ambitious and opportunistic. Without exception, they're power grubbers who like to control other people.

It's one thing if someone joins voluntarily, but something else entirely if they're coerced. The draft, or any kind of mandatory service or conscription, should be called what it is: Involuntary servitude. Or, as shocking as it may sound, slavery.