National Service....

[billybones]

Been talking with friends from Singapore recently as well as a friend from Thailand and both mentioned something about their sons having to do their national service.
As much as I don`t know the ins and outs it appears once the male gets to a certain age they have to enlist in one of the armed forces. This is meant to help teach them respect and honour as well as provide a possible career should they choose to stay on.

Could the same thing work here in Australia? I`ve always felt that nobody should be forced to go to war but the chances of them seeing an actual combat zone would be very slim.

 

[Rochelle]

Same in Germany. Germany hasn't got a standing army (not allowed........one of the WWII consequences) but every male should attend military service. It used to be 2 years, then 18 months, honestly no idea how long it is now. BUT (lol there is always a 'but') the 18+ males used to have a choice between military service or social service (which used to be a few months longer).
Honestly.........unless it has changed during the last 25 years the national service army in Germany wouldn't survive a day in a real battle as they all get trained primarily in folding shirts/bed sheets and cleaning guns and drinking lot's of booze.
Personally I do prefer a professional army. No point in forcing people to do something they don't want to do.

R.xxxxxxxx

 

[Tania Admin]

Maybe not every male or female (as I believe either can serve our country), but those who have been receiving government assistance for a long amount of time and seem unable/to lazy to find work. It sure would teach them to get out of bed early and at least they would then be earning the money rather than just handing it to them. It will boost our forces and to some degree help un-employment, kill 2 birds with one stone.

 

[Contrarian]

Been talking with friends from Singapore recently as well as a friend from Thailand and both mentioned something about their sons having to do their national service.
As much as I don`t know the ins and outs it appears once the male gets to a certain age they have to enlist in one of the armed forces. This is meant to help teach them respect and honour as well as provide a possible career should they choose to stay on.

Could the same thing work here in Australia? I`ve always felt that nobody should be forced to go to war but the chances of them seeing an actual combat zone would be very slim.

As you say BB, it MIGHT help "teach them respect and honour" but the sad truth is that it doesn't. Many people hate it, do their 2 years and piss off. Anyone who had any respect and honour had it loooong before they entered the army thanks to the good guidance of their parents. The rest just quietly suffer through it from what my friends tell me.

Sometimes - rarely I might add - some tearaway enters the Army doing NS and learn a trade and come out with a skill and some chance of employment but it doesn't happen often.

NS there is really a delaying tactic as well - helps create jobs before all these fresh school leavers enter the workforce.

 

[Demon]

No bloody way. I was in the last draft. Gough Whitlam cancelled the callup the day after he was elected in 1972. Only men too young to vote were doing national service.

War is not to be glorified.

PS. The military hates it. They don't want people who don't want to be there. My source. The Chief of Australian military (a General) who was a relation.

 

[mick7]

I think one of the reasons the voting age was lowered to 18 was so that never again people too young to vote could be conscripted.

i got called up in the first intake in 1965 but they decided i didnt meet their standards.(thank you god)
anyway the last thing the government wants is heaps of disaffected young men with military training wandering around unemployed and becoming insurgents and blowing politicians and infrastructure up

 

[Dallas]

When I left school my father had a policy for the kids we either have a job or we join the Army, needless to say with unemployment the way it was in the '80's it was off to basic training for me. While I quite enjoyed running around the jungle with my weapon in my hand, national service isn't for every one so don't think it should be compulsory.

 

[Contrarian]

All wars can end very easily. Just make all the generals run in front of the battle carrying the flag.

 

[homer]

NS in Singapore is compulsory. I think it was either 17 or 18, straight after high school. A friend whose family migrated here, I think partly to get away from it. He has not set foot in Singapore since. Accidents do happen for these people during their NS. I met some Singaporeans who came to Perth for their degree, most were mature age students, due to NS.

It shouldn't be compulsory i reckon. Besides the teaching of respect and honour should really start at home.

 

[Farm Boy]

Could the same thing work here in Australia? I`ve always felt that nobody should be forced to go to war but the chances of them seeing an actual combat zone would be very slim.

Were were you 1952 to 1972 Biller Boner ?

 

[Fudd]

All wars can end very easily. Just make all the generals run in front of the battle carrying the flag.

...not the generals....the politicians who sent them there!

 

[Demon]

...not the generals....the politicians who sent them there!

Right on Fudd. Don't blame the soldiers for war, it is the pollies.

If you are gun-happy you are rejected as a recruit for Australian military.

I am against our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, but don't hold any grudge towards the brave men and women we send there. They have volunteered to defend Australia. They should be better rewarded. But they should not have been sent to do a political job in Afghanistan or Iraq, just so weak Aussie pollies (Howard, Rudd & Gillard) could support bad American warmongering.

Privately most of the Aussies sent to Afghanistan & Iraq will tell they hated doing it, and did not support it. They were ordered to go.

 

[homer]

Pollies in their mind created the enemy, funded an enemy of the enemy to quash the enemy, then the enemy of the enemy becomes enemy of the state who funded and gave them the technologies.