•  stoy   ( @stoy@lemmy.zip ) 
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    4 months ago

    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.

            • They’re sending weapons to Saudi Arabia and Israel. They put sanctions on Afghanistan that are causing a famine. They’re funding Frontex, which kills migrants in the Mediterranean and those who make it get put into concentration camps. And that’s just some of it. The German government are war criminals and serial human rights abusers. Anyone who takes up arms to defend these people is complicit.

          • I absolutely believe in freedom, but I see mandatory military service as a way of supporting the freedom for the rest of the population.

            You do your service and hand it off to the next guy, you get skills and training, the country gets huge number of people who know the basics in a real situation.

            There are also plenty of tasks in the military that does not require weapons or killing, in a disaster the services are used to support the civilian society, clearing roads, fighting fires, building temporary bridges, distributing water/food/shelter, providing emergency healthcare, setting up communications.

            BTW, you use a very narrow definition of slavery.

            • There are also plenty of tasks in the military that does not require weapons or killing

              I’m sure someone in the military is tasked with cooking food for the whole army but in order to teach someone to prepare a meal you don’t put them through mandatory military service which main goal is to bake soldiers capable of shooting on command.

              If you believe in forcing everyone with jail as a penalty to learn how to kill people and to obey superior orders you have a narrow definition of freedom.

              Freedom is perpetuated through liberty not through constraints

              • You mention freedom a lot in comparison to military service, but in no society are you completely free, you have laws to follow and you have taxes to pay, so the freedom argument falls a bit flat when you use it so often.

                I see military service similar to a tax bill, since if no one wants to do it, the need doesn’t go away, it is still needed, and mandatory military service is s good way to solve it.

                • You have taxes to pay because someone say so and is forcing everyone with force to pay. If you don’t pay taxes you get labelled as a criminal and the guards come pick you and escort you to jail, even if the tax you don’t want to pay is unjust. If no one wanted to join the military you would have no wars to begin with, russia and israel which are two countries waging war and currently invading another country both have mandatory military service which you get punish if you don’t attend.

                  People can fight for freedom without being forced through a course that aims at taking away their individuality and self-will to turn them into checkers at rulers commands.

                  • If you think that individual freedom fighters are as effective as an army with a command structure, then you are just plain wrong, removing individuallity during fighting is a feature not a bug, obviously individual soldier’s talents are an asset and should be used by the military as far as practical, but in the end a soldier is a standardized tool that fit a specific criteria, else they would not be as effective.

      • Technically it is true, war has created plenty of friendships that would not have existed otherwise.

        However, that is not what I wrote, I wrote that compulsory millitary service is in general a good idea and that one of benefits is unity and understanding between citizens.

    • 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.

      • Again, I said it was a good idea, not the be all end all of bringing people together, that is just one benefit of mandatory service.

        You guys are really trying to misunderstand me.