usertron2020
Donor
Slaves? Really? [1] Do you also refer to the conscripted members of all WWII militaries as slaves? [2] How about the draftees in Vietnam? Were they slaves? [3]
1] Yes, really. How else do you define being kidnapped against your will by a foreign nation that forces you at gunpoint to fight and die for their wars? The principle of conscription has been understood as a military measure since ancient antiquity, and specifically meant for your own people. If no Impressed American ever set off the magazines of a British warship while it was engaged against an American vessel, it was either because they kept him far away from the ammunition, left it heavily guarded, or they were just plain lucky.
2] You're snarking. You've been around too long to pretend to be one of our younger members, so you can't plead ignorance. Yes, conscripts represent the less willing members of society going off to war. But you can't fight wars with a volunteer army alone. Not when wars of attrition begin. By employing Impressment, London was trying to engage in its Total War with Bony if not on the cheap, certainly by exacting a lower political price back home than one might have expected. By using fewer Britons than would otherwise have been necessary.
3] Impressment was at gunpoint, literally. You had options regarding the Vietnam War, or any American Draft. Either by applying for status as a conscientious objector or joining the Peace Corps. And I can just imagine the laughter of the British if an Impressed American told them (honestly!) that he was a Quaker.
Impressment, conscription, the draft are all essentially the same thing. The involuntary recruitment of men into a nations military. It's something that all nations do. The only difference between a letter from the draft board and a press gang is the level of force being used and that changes if you ignore the letter.
God I hate it when things get this extreme, but you don't know what you are talking about. I'll try bigger letters.
AND STILL, EVEN BY YOUR OWN BAROQUE LOGIC, THESE VIETNAM 'SLAVES' OF WHICH YOU SPEAK COULD CHOOSE OTHER OPTIONS, INCLUDING AT WORST ACCEPTING CONVICTION FOR "EVASION OF SERVICE", MEANING A TERM OF IMPRISONMENT FOR FIVE YEARS IN A FEDERAL PENITENTIARY. FAR FAR BETTER A CHOICE THAN SERVING (PERHAPS UNTIL DEATH) IN THE HELLHOLE BOWELS OF THE NAPOLEONIC ERA ROYAL NAVY.
The US draft applied to everyone residing in the country, citizen or not.
Non-citizens are certainly free to ENLIST, but have never AFAIK been subject to the Draft. Source?
By this logic, Enemy Aliens could be subject to the Draft.
A number of countries with mandatory military service regard those who take out citizenship in other countries without having completed that service as having an outstanding military service obligation that they will enforce.
If they can. I'm sure there are many defectors from the Cold War who would be surprised to hear this.
I knew one guy a number of years ago who kept getting notified by the country his parents emigrated from that he was required to report for military service and that his Canadian citizenship did not exempt him as they regarded him as a dual citizen.
All that proves is that said country (you didn't say which one?) has some idiots in its civil service. Surprise. Anyway, to the best of my knowledge, NO country on the face of this Earth allows its citizens to be drafted by another power against their will, dual citizenship be damned. Also, many countries tend to be picky as to who they will recognize as being eligible for dual citizenship status, especially if in this case (apparently) the other country was not in the Commonwealth.