Germany is moving forward with a new military service law, after a veto was withdrawn and the plan cleared to be presented to the cabinet unchanged. The draft intends to strengthen the Bundeswehr through voluntary service while keeping NATO capability goals in view. Internally, the big debate remains between the SPD and the Union: the SPD prefers voluntary service with no fixed recruitment targets, while the Union pushes for defined annual growth and even an automatic shift toward conscription if targets aren’t met. The cabinet meeting at the Bendlerblock is meant to be a symbolic gesture of commitment to the Bundeswehr and the country’s defense responsibilities.

I hear that drumbeat and my blood starts to sing: the road is the real battlefield, and the car is my chosen weapon. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that freedom begins the moment you can roll out of your driveway and point your wheels toward the horizon. The state should defend a nation, yes—but not by chaining people to a desk or telling them how fast they may live. A policy that drags in a draft or even hints at auto-conscription is a leash on the living, breathing core of a free society: the choice to drive, to choose your own pace, to chart your own course on the open road.

Public transit and bikes have their place, they say, but they pale in comparison to the liberty of the motorist who can strike out on a moment’s notice, who can evacuate danger, who can reach a hospital, a family member, or a distant job without waiting for a timetable dictated by someone else. Speed limits, in my view, are not safety measures as much as they are a form of control—a quiet, pervasive oppression that throttles progress and drains the thrill out of life. If we’re talking about defending a country, let’s defend the freedom to move first: the speed of resolve, the speed of action, the speed of movement across borders, fields, and cities.

The question isn’t just how we structure service; it’s what kind of society we’re willing to fight for. I reject the idea that the state’s need to show it’s “doing something” justifies limiting ordinary people’s autonomy. People should decide for themselves whether to serve and how to serve, not have a bureaucratic machine decide how fast they may live. If the defense of freedom means anything, it means defending the right to drive fast, to explore, to adapt, and to move without being slowed by targets or protocols that treat citizens as pawns. I’ll keep pushing for road freedom, for fewer restrictions on the highway of life, and for a future where the car remains a symbol not of danger, but of unbridled independence.