A proposal for the 31st amendment to the Constitution of the United States
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Section 1. Service in the armed forces of the United States shall be by contract, into which no person shall be compelled to enter, and which no person shall be compelled to extend. All convictions against any conscript for desertion, disobedience, or insubordination, and all convictions for evasion of conscription or failure to register for conscription, are hereby set aside.
Section 2. The United States shall enter into no treaty which abridges the rights, privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; grants command authority over the armed forces of the United States to any person not a citizen thereof; obligates the United States or any State to make or enforce any law; or makes persons or property within the United States or its territories subject to the laws or regulations of any foreign power. The United States hereby withdraws from any such treaties to which it may already be signatory.
Section 3. No treaty shall expand, diminish, or otherwise alter the jurisdictions or powers of the States or of the United States.
Section 4. In addition to the requirement, that no treaty of the United States shall be effective unless two-thirds of the Senate shall vote to ratify it, no treaty shall be ratified unless at least one Senator from each State votes in favor of it.
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This amendment concerns itself with the armed forces and foreign policy. American foreign policy has been so idiotic that it defies description. Except for the complete no-brainers (response to unprovoked attack by armed forces in uniform), the foreign policy decisions of this nation have been characterized by moderate-to-severe botches. The only truly successful formula for lasting peace is to deter aggression through ceaseless vigilance, and to answer aggression with overwhelming force. In trade all agreements must be reciprocal, or they are worse than useless. There are some tools of statecraft that only tyrants need.
First, the draft must go. The lives of the citizens do not belong to the state. Unjust wars are fought with conscripts. There will always be enough volunteers to defend the US against foreign aggression (until the time comes that our nation no longer deserves to be defended).
Our non-military treaties have been a useless mockery, and in many cases are harmful to this nation's security. Short of military action, treaties are simply not enforceable.
Certain interest groups have employed treaties with foreign nations to gain powers that are otherwise prohibited by the Constitution. That needs to stop.
No state should be forced into a treaty against which it is firmly opposed.
I formerly had a section in here prohibiting the stationing of troops in foreign places, except in prosecution of a declared war. After careful consideration—not prompted by any of the mail I have received—I have removed it.
