A free country is one that respects freedom of conscience. It is also one that allows freedom of travel. Ukraine's government under the vastly over-praised western media darling of the moment, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has violated those freedoms by barring exit from the country to men of fighting age who don't believe in this war, don't want to fight in it, and don't want to die for their country..
That action of a compulsory draft and a closed border to adult males should disqualify Zelenskyy from talking about freedom, and gives the lie to those in the US who describe Ukraine's fight against Russia as being part of a struggle between dictatorship and some supposedly 'free world.'
In January 1977, President Jimmy Carter (a US Navy officer and veteran), granted a blanket to draft dodgers, resisters, and those who had fled the country. It was a presidential recognition (not complete as draftee deserters and other military protesters of the war were excluded from it) that opposition to the draft was an act of conscience, not crime.
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