The late Milton Friedman was the one of the strongest and most eloquent opponents of military conscription. In all my conversations with him, though, and in all of his writing on the draft, I don’t recall whether he took a stand on draft dodging. His good friend and fellow Gates Commission member, the late W. Allen Wallis, was also a strong, principled opponent of the draft. But, in December 1976, after Gerald Ford had lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter, I failed to persuade Allen to contact Ford and try to persuade him, as one of his last official acts as President, to grant amnesty to draft dodgers. Wallis disagreed and thought that draft dodgers should be punished. As I say, I don’t know Milton’s views; my hunch, though, is that he would be heartened by the anti-draft movement going on in the Ukraine.

Here’s a news report on the extensiveness of draft dodging and an eloquent speech by a Ukrainian woman who argued against the draft.