Posted on 03/05/2022 5:18:17 AM PST by blam
Conscription was introduced in Germany back in 1956, with all men over the age of 18 expected to serve at least one year in the army (although they could claim exemption for moral reasons). But the draft was scrapped to save money, as Germany’s military endured a long post-war decline.
But Moscow’s increasingly aggressive posture on the global stage has given the Germans reason to reverse this decline.
In recent days, German politicians have called for a revival of some form of mandatory military service, according to France24.
Wolfgang Hellmich, a politician for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), called for an “urgent” debate on the issue in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday.
Compulsory military service would help “promote public spirit,” he said, also calling for careers in the Bundeswehr to be made more attractive to young people.
The president of Germany’s association of reservists has called on the government to reintroduce a “general framework” for military service for both men and women. This could take the form of “one year in which young people who are of age and have completed their education do something for the state and the community”, he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
Members of the CDU, the party of Angela Merkel that is now in the opposition after 16 years in power, have also expressed support for bringing back the draft. Members from the state of Lower Saxony have gone so far as to publish a paper calling for the reintroduction of military service.
Voices from the conservative CDU, now in opposition after 16 years in power under Angela Merkel, have also come out in favour of conscription.
In the state of Lower Saxony, CDU members have put together a paper calling for the reintroduction of military service as “a decisive signal for ensuring an effective military deterrence,” according to Die Welt newspaper.
CDU MP Carsten Linnemann told the Bild daily he was in favour of “a year of compulsory service for young men and women after completing their schooling”.
This could also take the form of a year of service in the social care sector or the emergency services, he said.
“This would strengthen the resilience of our society to crises” and promote skills that are necessary in “these persistently difficult times”, he said.
Opposition to the idea is most fierce among Germany’s Social Democrats.
Eva Hoegl, a Social Democrat and the Bundestag’s defence commissioner, has called the debate “a theoretical discussion that does not help in the current situation”.
And Florian Hahn of the CSU, the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, said Germany needs “technology and weapons systems”, not just an increased head count.
Since the end of the Cold War, Germany has steadily reduced the size of its army from around 500K at the time of German reunification in 1990 to just 200K today.
We need to restart the draft here in the United States.
Convince me otherwise.
If they do it will be the women who fight the war.
“Germany Mulls Reviving Draft To Beef Up Military Amid War In Ukraine”
Good to hear, maybe they’ll start making MEN out of their Soy Boys.
And yes, that is the kind of action a country can take (along with drill-baby-drill) that STILL gets Putin’s attention without risking WW3.
“We need to restart the draft here in the United States.
Convince me otherwise.”
Interesting that we don’t hear anything along those lines, or anything else about building up our military, in the US. Perhaps our needs are met with the recent inclusion of drag queens?
“Wir marschieren wieder! Die gute alte zeit ist zurruck!*
* We march again! The good old times are back!’’.
So... what’s the latest in Hugo Boss military wear for The Germany Army these days?
What’s the well dressed ‘’frontswine’’ wearing?
2) You can't have mandatory service for all and have it be for longer than that without having a massively overstaffed military.
3) Tons of them are going to be physically/mentally/emotionally unsuited to serve, and be damned dangerous to anyone around them.
4) The massive degradation in troop quality is going to discourage many who currently volunteer to serve from making it a career. They'll just get the hell out rather than put up with all the numbskulls and problems they'd create. You'll lose a lot of good NCO's and officers. That would degrade our combat effectiveness significantly.
5) Rather than imparting military virtues to civilians, the flood of crappy recruits and very high turnover inherent in 12 month contracts will be bringing civilian lack of virtues to the military.
That’s not a bad idea. The reason most young people don’t do military service is they are in a hurry to get to college and start making money. Yet people are living longer, so putting that off for a year or two would not be that harmful, especially if everyone had to do it, eliminating the FOMO aspect. With the GI Bill still in place, fewer kids would have to run up astronomical debt to pay for college. Kind of a win-win.
And yes, that would apply to women and trans freaks.
I am opposed. We don’t need a draft. We have plenty of troops to defend the actual borders of the USA. If we need more, it would be for the enforcement of a NWO. No.
If this corrupted country came for my boys?
Screw them.
Volk ans gewehr!
Obviously you are not aware that we won World War II against two superpowers with a mostly drafted military.
And then won the Cold War against the third superpower with nearly 30 years of a drafted military.
You make some good points, and I can see a one-year term being destructive to the force and not worth the effort.
I have concerns about our current force being able to withstand combat they are not convincingly winning.
Why? Because it worked so well during Vietnam?
“Germany Mulls Reviving Draft To Beef Up Military Amid War In Ukraine”
My mind saw Germany, Draft, Beer.
That's even more magnified now give. That so many young people are keyboard/couch/videogame potatoes lacking any real physicality. By the time you could get them in anything close to good physical condition, they'd be out.
After Pearl Harbor, thousands upon thousands volunteered for duty. Those men were not drafted.
We are not yet facing an existential threat as was posed by the Axis powers.
FRiend, you make good points, but I was on active duty from 77-84, while we were building the All Volunteer Force. The AVF continues to this day, but our problem is not number of personnel, it's a stagnant, politicized Pentagon that is the problem. A draft will not solve that problem.
My tour in Germany has yet to be toppled from my list of importance of jobs I've had. I'm not saying my professional life went downhill after that, of course.
I was with the same battalion for 4 1/2 years, starting out as a Chaparral Platoon Leader, ending as the Battalion S-4. Early on, we had our share of issues with new soldiers, but we worked through them. OTOH, the most fun I had as a Vulcan Platoon leader with 3 squad leaders who were "acting jacks", i.e. E-4s instead of the authorized E-6s. They weren't jaded, they were eager to learn.
Despite usually good natured ribbing over their youth and inexperience, we shocked everyone when we were the only platoon to pass during a battery level evaluation. I never doubted their ability, it was easy to lead them.
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