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I have been reading a lot of opinions lately about mandatory military service both in the U.S. and here in Canada. I wanted to guage how we all felt about this around the country as I agree with it to a certain degree.
Not the USSR style where you are commited at a very young age, but rather at a voluntary time between a certain age and time-after high school/or college. From my perspective, it is a solid idea, teaches values, strength-both mental and physical, and provides an opportunity to travel and learn about other parts of the world that otherwise we would only read of in the paper or see on TV.

This generation (me included) is lacking the sacrifice made by the past generations, and forgetting these lessons learned.

What do ya's think?

Please no bashing, I actually would like some constructive ideas here.

   

It depends on what you want to teach them. Anything more than 1 year would be more than nessesary to become infantry, definately not good infantry, but sufficient. I'd want to give them the fitness, the drive and the pride, but nothing that was not cost effective when they walk out the door. Even 6-9 months would give them a base and respect for what the forces do.
Sadly, right now I don't thing the recrutement system could handle them though. We'd have to build up to it.

I don't like a flexable time frame though. Idealy, I'd like to get them right before university or the start of a career. That would also limit female losses through pregnancy, etc.

   

Mandatory military service would help Canadians learn more about their own country, and it could be a thing where the kids brought in would only ever have to fight on a home defence thing, and only volunteers would be shipped off to do nato ops. I imagen the first few months would be a bitch, i know cadets was a bich for the first few months, but eventually we all gain something out of it. We might actually become more unified as a nation once more.

And if any peacenicks say they don't want to join the military, deport the buggers for treason. I know my opinion on this may seem a bit harsh, but if they arn't willing to support their country this way, why the hell would they actually want to go to war to defend this country incase we ever were attacked? Any citizen of canada who feel they have the right to live in this country, will also have the responsibility to defend this country they call home if it ever were invaded.

   

this is a free country and it won't happen. I can't seen it happening in the US either.

Not disagreeing that the pros of it are not there, it just won't happen, not in our society, frankly if there was a major war, I don't think the government could pull of a draft either.

   

The quality of a conscription service is always lower than a volunteer force. If we want Canadians to learn more about their own country make history classes mandatory, it would be cheaper.

   

Really, where are all the people going to go if there was a draft ?

If you can't defend the country you don't belong here, simple as that.

   

It's definately not the quality of the military but a quality of the voters that I'm thinking of.
If most folks have a clue what wet boots feel like, they'd be more interested in where we send them and the gear we send with them.
I could see a manditory 6 months that would make them basic (BASIC) troops. Most will go on to do other things but what they take with them would be invaluable.

   

To some degree yes I would agree with mandatory but hopefully you can understand what I mean when I say yes but only in the form of character building of stamina , respect , honor , and health , but not to fight wars of any kind... that is the job for those who start them (usually between the ages of 35 to 55 and quite often much older)... soooo I believe this is the age group to fight wars . I don't think we are loosing any honor from our children to allow them to grow start a family, enjoy them and live a little before taking the suicide path to meaningless hate. The only purpose to mandatory would be to create an appreciation for your country and to stand steadfast for it , and the young need to understand this , Although we would hope it would never come to such a thing they would be mentally prepared and therefore capable of eventually overthrowing a nation which would try to take over our country even if it was many decades later . "My little two cent tidbit"

My personal participation was 3 years but only as a civilian . I enjoyed target practice but hated it when the guys would blow ravens out of sky . Heck I was the one to shoot ground shots at deer when going hunting to chase them toward the ones that would .

   

Right-o! May as well deport all the Mennonites and Quakers without delay. What have peacenick twits like Erasmus, Alfred Nobel, Thoreau, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein, John Lennon, Tolstoy or Gandhi ever contributed to society?!? Or those hippies Jesus and Buddha... treasonous, one and all!!

   

Alfred Nobel:

Nobel found that when nitroglycerin was incorporated in an absorbent inert substance like kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth) it became safer and more convenient to manipulate, and this mixture he patented in 1867 as dynamite.

He next combined nitroglycerin with another high explosive, gun-cotton, and obtained a transparent, jelly-like substance, which was a still more powerful explosive than dynamite. Gelignite, or Blasting gelatin as it was called, was patented in 1876, and was followed by a host of similar combinations, modified by the addition of potassium nitrate, wood-pulp and various other substances.

Some years later Nobel produced ballistite, one of the earliest of the nitroglycerin smokeless gunpowders, containing in its latest forms about equal parts of gun-cotton and nitroglycerin. This powder was a precursor of cordite, and Nobel's claim that his patent covered the latter was the occasion of vigorously contested law-suits between him and the United Kingdom. From the manufacture of dynamite and other explosives, and from the exploitation of the Baku oil-fields, in the development of which he and his brothers, Ludvig and Robert Hjalmar (1829-1896), took a leading part, he amassed an immense fortune.

A little blood on his hands ?

Albert Einstein his too

   

Other countries have this, I think it's a great idea for Canadians 30 years old and under to have military training.

Compulsory Military Training in New Zealand

Countries with mandatory military service (partial list)

   

Not really. There's no hypocrisy in being a pacifist, while also being a great chemist or physicist. Any science can be turned to evil, but scientists are not all evil by extension.

   

Maybe mandatory service in the reserves...that way they can continue with civvy life, careers etc, but not regular service


my nickels worth (inflation)

   

Exactly.

Putting every man (and woman) into military service lowers the overall quality of your military. The US switched in the 1970s and the quality of their personnel shot through the roof. Western forces crushing conscript units in both Gulf Wars and Afghanistan are further proof.

There are very few conscription forces in the world that have high ability (Israel is one big exception). Most are unreliable and of poor quality. Many Eastern European nations for example maintain more soldiers than Canada but have only marginally better (or even worse) combat ability than Canada does. Take for example Greece. 150,000 troops and their combat power works out to only a 20% better than ours. Comparisons

During the Cold War, Canada and the UK were the only two professional forces, and their average quality exceeded everyone else, even those with better equipment. Troop for troop, the Canucks and Brits were recognized as the the best in Europe for a long time.

Of course, in times of war, national service is absolutely necessary, even though we didn't have conscription in Canada in WW2 until almost the bitter end.

   

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