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Tech giant Palantir has made a frightening claim in a recent manifesto, as CEO Alex Karp calls for the return of mandatory national service amid the ongoing Iran war as many citizens fear the draft.
It's no secret that the nation's biggest tech companies are becoming increasingly involved in politics – especially as artificial intelligence becomes integral to global power – yet the role of one particular executive could perhaps prove to be monumental when it comes to future military action.
Conscription officially ended for Americans in December 1972 just a few years before the Vietnam war came to a close, and military service has remained completely voluntary ever since.
While the US has been involved in a number of wars in the past few decades, fears that the draft is set for a comeback are arguably greater than ever — especially as key White House officials have refused to rule out the possibility.
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That notion appears to have the backing of one powerful figure in the tech world too, as Palantir CEO Alex Karp outlines exactly why he believes national service should be reinstated in a frightening mission statement on X, as reported by Newsweek.
Sharing a brief of Karp's book 'The Technological Republic' on social media, the official Palantir account outlined in the sixth point:
"National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the same risk and the cost."
This is effectively calling for the draft to return — although with a slightly different perspective to those who believe that it's necessary for military success, as Karp emphasizes the 'shared cost' of war.
While some might be able to glean a sense of caution towards military action from this statement in isolation, several other points made throughout the manifesto make it clear that Karp and Palantir believe in the necessitation of US military might — and the CEO is himself, of course, well above the maximum eligible age for a draft that would let him escape the so-called 'shared cost'.
It argues for the essential nature of AI weapons that are inevitable in the eyes of the tech world, and offers wholehearted software support for any military action overseas.
"If a U.S. Marine asks for a better rifle, we should build it; and the same goes for software," the point following the claim about national service reads.
"We should as a country be capable of continuing a debate about the appropriateness of military action abroad while remaining unflinching in our commitment to those we have asked to step into harm's way," it continues.
The manifesto also argues that "American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace," despite the fact that the Trump administration's actions in Iran have plunged the world into potential economic and nuclear catastrophe, and it even claims that the "postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone," insisting that the sanctions implemented on the two fascist states were "an overcorrection."
