Posted on 02/10/2015 8:10:28 AM PST by McGruff
Ruslan Kotsaba posted a video addressed to the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, last week in which he said he would rather go to prison for five years for draft-dodging than fight pro-Russia rebels in the country’s east. Now he faces 15 years in jail after being arrested for treason and obstructing the military.
His case is symptomatic of Kiev’s difficulties in mobilising a war-weary society to continue the fight against the rebels, who appear to have an unlimited supply of weapons and training from Russia. As the country nears bankruptcy and the reform programme demanded by the Maidan revolution last year is sidelined by the war effort, the drive to call up new recruits is floundering.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Yeah, and they got pardoned by the second-worst President in this nation’s time.
“”There was a recent story about drafting women.””
I heard from a friend whose daughter in law is from Ukraine living here and was told that her brother in Ukraine - in his forties - has received a notice to show up for service. The family is pretty upset and I was surprised at the age but I guess it squares with this report. From news reports, there is a lot of damage being done in the cities...
The best thing that comes out of this is the lesson that if you allow your government to plunder its citizens, strip itself of military might, and allow an elite class to rule by fiat you may have a hard to explaining to the average grunt why that country is worth dying for.
And if you will not defend your own country then I shouldn’t be compelled to defend it.
I didnt want my country to be invaded and wanted secured borders. Ya think they cared about what we want?
I know what you want. To bow to Putin and kiss him.
Kotsaba is as much a journalist as I am an astronaut. A nobody. You and I are as much “journalists” as he is. What makes him special is that he’s from the West Ukraine where support for Ukraine is at 99.9%. This Judas appeared on Russian TV, was introduced as “journalist”, and would thrash Ukraine.
Imagine Michael Moore on Iran TV talking about the American Satan, you’ll get Katsuba.
The problem I have with this is; if this new “less” corrupt gov’t is so great why do they have to force people to fight for them, draft women and make travel restrictions?
I know I wouldn’t be willing to do just anything the Obama gov’t told me to do, just because it’s the gov’t of my country.
You are asking why governments have military drafts. They happen when there aren’t enough volunteer forces, or when monetary incentives to join the army aren’t enough. America had the draft during Vietnam. If that was a contentious war (for some) and they had to introduce the draft to increase military forces, there was nothing contentious about WW2 (nazis and Japs were evil) but still, even then, they had to introduce the draft and “force people to fight”. Few will join the army out of sheer patriotism and ones that do are worth their weight in gold.
In Ukraine’s case, the number of volunteer soldiers is somewhere around 15K, maybe 20K. They get paid nothing or almost nothing, and survive on donations, or their own funds. The country is dirt poor and can’t afford to hire and provide for the hired the way it’s done in US. There are professional soldiers in Ukraine and the government only recently increased their wages.
The reason there’s no full mobilization and it’s not a “total war” situation for Ukraine is because the fighting in East Ukraine seems to be contained. If Russians advance to Odesa, Poltava or even Kyiv, number of Ukrainians voluntarily taking arms will only increase.
I guess when the war is at home or for what a person feels is in the best interests of their family and country, people are more inclined to join, and like you said, they are worth their weight in gold.
I knew a lot of guys I went to school with that were just eighteen or so, crying and scared to death of dying (which some did) because they were drafted to go fight a war in a jungle thousands of miles away for what reason they didn’t understand. And the news was telling them it was a losing war. They had plans for their young lives and it was gone.
The thing that upsets me about our wars is the rules of engagements, etc., seems to cause more casualties on our side than we should have. I’ve read that we had Vietnam won until politicos caused us to lose it.
Did you serve?
God bless you if you did
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