Germany mulls reintroduction of compulsory military service
Germany mulls reintroduction of compulsory military service
The Bundeswehr is facing a dramatic shortage in personnel. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rekindled the debate over reintroducing conscription.
I really hope they introduce a year of social service. No matter if military, police or healthcare, everyone should experience what it feels to serve society at least once.
An interesting aspect I didn't think of so far was recently brought by German news influencer LeFloid: It adds people to the mix of police and military that wouldn't normally be there. The far-left tend to avoid them, while the far-right embraces them. This creates a dangerous imbalance between left and right views in these structures and opens up room for radicalisation.
Correct. (Only it goes both ways - the left do get influenced by that mix during their service.)
Terrible Idea - in Austria many young men do a 9 month long social service instead of military service and many often get treated like shit.
Oh yea I can't wait to be jailed and fined if i don't want to be forced to serve for free a country that destroy the environment to mine lignite and sell weapons to saudi arabia.
Fuck that.
Cool idea, but in practice the left leaning weren't serving in the military. They were usually taking the civil service route or trying to avoid both by faking disabilities.
Since taking office at the beginning of 2023, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been thinking about ways to make the Bundeswehr more attractive as a career.
No amount of money or benefits will ever make me a government's boot licker. Sorry, not sorry
Maybe you personally. But money would actually solve all their problems.
All they provide today is a shitty job with bad pay and no future prospects.
They are not finding enough soldiers because all these soft modern young adults are too selfish for that job, just like companies find no employees because those spoiled brats are too lazy to work. Obviously none of it has to do with not providing reasonable payments of course. So forced labor is the the proposed solution.
So what is the alternative? Let any authoritarian asshole who has managed to convince many boot lickers to join him, take over your country?
cold war 2.0 is as shitty as the first one
TIL they had that.
Austria still does
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Since taking office at the beginning of 2023, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been thinking about ways to make the Bundeswehr more attractive as a career.
As journalist and defense and security policy expert Thomas Wiegold told DW: "A major frustration in the Bundeswehr is the bureaucracy.
When Pistorius floated his ideas about conscription in December, he faced a barrage of criticism, including from within his own center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Party co-chair Saskia Esken said it would be impossible to implement mandatory recruitment on an ad hoc basis "because the training units required for this are no longer available."
"The reintroduction of compulsory service would be a serious encroachment on the freedom of young people who want to orient themselves professionally," FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr warned in an interview with the Funke Mediengruppe.
"Who would have thought around two years ago that the Bundestag would decide on setting up a special fund of €100 billion for the Bundeswehr against the backdrop of a Russian war of aggression?"
The original article contains 900 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
forced labour is slavery
maybe folks would sign up to protect their country if they thought it deserved to be protected, or was doing anything for them
Do you say the same about jury duty?
In my opinion, as long as the system for who is required to participate is fair and equitable, then it's fair to consider it a civil duty.
I do not see compulsory military service as forced labour, not by a long shot.
In my country when a man turns 18, he has to choose either military service (6 months for rank and file, 9 months for specialists or 12 months for specialist drivers and NCO and officer trainees) or civil service (13 months). Third and very seldomly used option is "total denial", which means you get to spend 6 months in an open jail.
I very reluctantly chose military service, hoping to get the shortest 6 month option. I ended up serving 12 months in the reserve officer training program, so I do have some experience on the matter.
The population of my country is so small that an army based on professional or voluntary troops is not a possibility. Conscription is the only viable choice.
The service was rarely fun, but it was very effective and extremely valuable. The personal growth I experienced during that year was immeasurable and one year of my life is a very small price to pay to this country that my grandparents' generation paid a very heavy toll to protect. A country that offers equal rights, universal healthcare and free education for all citizens, amongst many other tax-paid services.
If you do not see your own country worth serving, I feel sad for you. I would gladly give my life to protect mine.
I do not see compulsory military service as forced labour, not by a long shot.
performing labour or 6 months of jail does sound completely unforced
A country that offers equal rights, universal healthcare and free education for all citizens, amongst many other tax-paid services.
i am so glad that you have all of that
If you do not see your own country worth serving, I feel sad for you
i said nothing about whether i see my own country as worth serving, but your pity is appreciated
I would gladly give my life to protect mine
and youll continue to have the option to do so regardless of whether your government continues to threaten its citizens into doing so
The number of people who think conscription is just getting ferried to a frontline with a sandwich and a thumbs up is baffling.
I believe it is a good idea, not only will it foster a closer feeling of unity and understanding between citizens, it will also be something all citizens have in common, and something you can talk about with anyone.
I am a bit sad that I never got to do it, I did muster, but failed the hearing test, at the time I was relieved, but now, I miss it sort of.
That's just dumb. War is good make friends ugh ugh bonk
If you want to bring people together create a program to do such thing. Forcing them into a shooting at people and dropping bombs course is the worst thing you could possibly come up with.
First world militaries do a hell of a lot more than fight. For example, talking to a young guy at a party last night and the older host. Kid's a Navy SIGINT guy, host is about to retire from commercial sailing. They got to chatting and the kid had been monitoring threats in the area the host's ship had passed through in '21.
After Hurricane Ivan the Florida Guard rolled in and saved our asses. After Katrina my ex-FIL led the Mississippi guard into south MS. They cut houses in half to open the roads.