Military service in Greece is mandatory. I could avoid that by declaring myself as a junkie (by being examined in the hospital if there is heroin in my blood) but i didn't. Mistake. Anyway i was a soldier for one year. Waste of time mainly. All armies suck. Especially conscript ones. So you are right...
Discussion
The point of European conscription is actually recruitment to the professional military and fostering national solidarity. Not the same as dragging some alcoholic out of prison and throwing him at machine-gun fire.
What do you mean european conscription?
EU peacetime conscription, like military service.
Eu? There is no eu military yet. There is national conscription. And as in society, you can find every kind of person.
What i liked most in the army was when i was in the post of the car fuels during snowtime. No officers there. Only soldiers smoking hashish all day 🤩
My husband had air force service. Mostly cleaning stuff and running telephone cables in the woods and whatnot. And drinking beer. 😂
My sons' friend is serving a volunteer year, right now. Likes it and might sign up for the Bundeswehr, afterward.
Oh that cleaning stuff reminds me my main task. After the army sweeping the floor and eashimg the dishes seems a much easier task 😂
Volunteer year is a great program. But forcing people to serve in peacetime is militarily useless, economically wasteful, and serves only political objectives.
No it has its logic. Some otherwise civilians can indeed contribute to a fight.
Yes, but 100% of those are the same ones who would do a volunteer year
No. The whole point is that you have just a few soldiers, so you need mandatory service. For example if we had not Turkyie next to us with 70 million more population thsn us, we wouldn't have that. Same for the israeli occupation forces. Without conscripts they can not guard something more than their barraks. That is all...
I understand the problem, I just don't believe conscription fixes it.
The unpaid and unmotivated do not learn efficiently, and then get completely rekt in war.
But they let the government pretend its doing something, and also function as hostages in any domestic political crisis.
Britain, during the 1930s, had classes at highschool on weapons handling and basic fieldcraft. That would be my preferred model of compulsory service, by far.
Yeah it is that too in a way but think of this: conscripts can cover succesfully positions such as cookers, supplies, transports and of course guarding etc. So they release a significant number of fighting troops from other duties. Not all are fighting. A big number does not fight