as someone in their mid 40s, there's a reason they target 15+ for recruitment. 30 years ago I bought in to all that bullshit.
if I was drafted today to fight an unwinnable war for the rich, you're damn right I'm playing it cool until I can get a grenade in the same tent or vehicle as a bunch of flag officers.
That's been an idea I've had for a long time but never really confirmed it, that main part of recruiting younger people. My uncle got drafted to go to Vietnam after he was already 30 and he despised it. I've only known two types of veterans: people who knew from birth they wanted to be a soldier, and older people who did it simply as a job or family pressure. That first group I've known have all ended up racist chuds, the second group all hate war now or they simply don't talk about it.
Younger people are consistently the most bright eyed and willing to believe liars. They assume the best of everything, they assume everything is good-faith until proven otherwise. You don't just see this with military but with younger people supporting liberals in europe as well, they believe their bullshit as long as it's presented in an astute and professional-ish way like they're used to from their academic setting.
Those reaching late thirties and early forties get over the bright-eyed shit through life experience. They've seen how much lying there is.
Holy fuck, I'm having a moment of existential...I guess you would call it "profound historical awareness" that this is what volksturm would have been like with twitter. I absolutely guarantee that some desperate methed up SS officer employed this exact rationale in 1945 Berlin.
Of course he's a former br*tish officer. What're the odds he was some sort of supply officer or other rear echelon support crew? It's always the ones furthest from combat that are the most supportive.
Then again even if he was in a "combat" unit his combat experience would most likely be riding around in an mrap or heli, shooting some people that he claimed were armed, and heading back to base for boiled hunk of beef.
Also if they hold their positions to the death they won't be doing fucking anything afterwards, because they'll be facedown in the mud, dead so you can write how the brave slava Ukraini fought to the last from your comfortable London office. Put your money where your mouth is, pick up an ak, and hold that shell hole to the death you ghoul
Genuinely I think future historians will analyze the Ukrainian conflict through the lens of some kind of senicide. It truly has taken the volkstrum concept to a completely different level.
Ukraine started drafting the oldest people in the pool first, to stop them aging out of draft eligibility. They lowered the minimum age to 27, and then to 25 recently.
Bro I'm not even getting past basic I'm barely motivated enough to get in my car to do my job where i only have a minor risk of dying. Yeah if they skip training and conditioning and just give me a gun I'm doing the funny thing but I'm not going to run even a little bit fuck that
Can some military person tell me if their helmets are supposed to look like they don't fit? Or are they so strapped for supplies they don't have properly fitting helmets