The heated exchange that broke out between President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Ukrainian President Zelensky in the Oval Office last Friday has captured the world’s attention. One reason is simply that it’s rare to see genuine face-to-face arguments between world leaders happen out in front of the cameras. But, adding to that, it was striking to watch Vance and Trump issue a sharp rebuke to a leader that virtually all government officials in the West have treated like an unassailable saint.
In the past few days, there has been a lot of analysis about the appropriateness of the exchange and the potential geopolitical implications of a breakdown in trust between US and Ukrainian officials. But one notable comment has gone almost entirely unmentioned in the subsequent freakout.
After Zelensky kicked things off by using a rhetorical question to challenge Vance on his appeal to the need for diplomacy, Vance fired back by calling Zelensky out for “forcing conscripts to the front lines because [he] has manpower problems.”
As far as I can tell, that was the first time a senior American government official has made any negative comment about the Ukrainian government’s use of conscripts in its war with Russia. Which is appalling, because abducting people and sending them to fight and die in a military campaign they clearly don’t believe in enough to join voluntarily is one of the worst, most tyrannical things a government can do. And Ukraine has been doing it with the enthusiastic support of American officials for years.
For those of you who have never been subject to conscription, this may be an eye-opener. Conscription is slavery. There is no other way to state it, unless you want to sugar coat it and feed it to children. You are only an asset of the state, a chattel, that can be called upon to be put in front of the grapeshot as cannonfodder by those who will not put themselves in the same situation. THEY tell you to obey, and if you don’t there is a nice damp and cold cell waiting for you. So, go out there and die for your country. This is what happens when the populace does not and will not support the state’s actions in warfare. This is what that little snake Zelensky is doing to Ukrainian people, no more and no less. So, to me, it looks like the Ukrainian people no longer support any war efforts because they are not volunteering to join the military but being conscripted by force.