We are told that we are in a state of preparing for war. When we will start restricting luxury items, unnecessary private jet travel, energy waste in crypto-currencies, etc.?
Because it seems that for being so obsessed to be prepared for war the only ones affected are the working class. The rich are just wasting resources away like if there was no tomorrow.
I just see austerity 2.0 to cut citizens rights, cut services to the working class and transfer as much wealth and power to the super-rich as possible.
I am all for Europe being prepared for war. That is a necessity. So, I am all for better health care, better education, less dependency on foreign gas and oil, better funding for goverment programs ... real measures to be prepare for the worst and less bending over to rich foreign interests.
> I am all for Europe being prepared for war. That is a necessity.
Why? Name one scenario where EU needs a bigger army and masses of barely-trained conscripts.
If you say "Ukraine loses", why not spend all effort on helping Ukraine instead?
> So, I am all for better health care, better education, less dependency on foreign gas and oil, better funding for goverment programs ...
You do realize that preparing for war is insanely expensive and can only be funded by cutting all those other nice things? Also, what do we need education for if we actually expect many people to die in World War style ground warfare?
How about: Let's build some nukes, spend the rest of the money on Ukraine support, and forget about ground war conscription lunacy?
> Because it seems that for being so obsessed to be prepared for war the only ones affected are the working class. The rich are just wasting resources away like if there was no tomorrow
In the US it was very fascinating to see the reaction to the Iran conflict. A bunch of geriatric pedowood actors and actual Epstein associates were seething that young men in general across the political spectrum who do not want to die in a pointless war of nothing in some god forsaken desert again.
The rule isn't new, it existed for decades all the way back to the beginnings of the Cold War. Nobody cared back then (neither the people nor the army), nobody should care now (there are no sanctions). I guess some journalist was actually reading through the consciption law (as probably the only person on the planet), stumbled over that passage and turned it into an elephant.
I cannot understand how German men can be expected to fight while women are exempt. It's pure sexism against men and also very insulting to women.
I'm opposed to conscription in general, but I live in Sweden with gender-neutral conscription laws, and I would do my best to defend my country if it became necessary. If I were a man in an alternate version of Sweden with male-only conscription, I would feel so disrespected and devalued by the state that I couldn't imagine myself defending it, so I would either join a non-state-affiliated resistance group or flee the country.
If I lived in Germany right now (even as a woman, but especially as a man), I would seriously consider emigrating to a more egalitarian country as soon as possible.
I think you ask the question wrong. There can be endless debates about whether woman should fight or not. The _real_ question is why only German men are restricted by the law. Even if women do not fight they should be subjected to the same restrictions as they'd have country-bound functions in a war scenario as well - be it fighting or not. And I'd even go a step further and argue that the rule should apply to each and everybody in Germany. It's kind of ridiculous that German men have their movement restricted because of a hypothetical defense situation while Ukrainian men are not just invited by Germany to avoid being drafted and they can come and go as they like.
Having said that. The real problem with that law is not even the law itself but how it came to being, which unveils a completely messed up and incompetent legislative procedure in the German government and parliament.
I guess it depends on what you are used to and what you have grown to expect.
Life is not fair, but you can learn to accept what is expected from you by the circumstances of your birth. I had to serve in the military, because I was born a man and a Finnish citizen. I accepted that, because it was my lot in life. My rights and duties would have been different, had I been a woman or a Swedish or US citizen.
On the other hand, I would have found it extremely unfair if conscription had been based on a random lot. Regardless of if it would have covered only men or women as well. It would be unfair to condemn someone to serve due to bad luck, when another person like them is allowed to walk free.
Universality is the fundamental justification for conscription. Conscripts should only have to fight in a war that is serious enough that the country is willing to send all its sons (and daughters, if you prefer that) to risk their lives. If the country does not believe in the war enough to justify that, it should send volunteers, not conscripts.
The vast majority of men in my grandparents' generation served in WW2. Most of them saw combat. That was always the expectation what conscription is supposed to be for. My parents' generation saw their peers in the US conscripted and sent to fight in Vietnam. But only some men were conscripted, and only some conscripts were sent to Vietnam. It's not inherently wrong to use conscripts in a foreign war, but it's wrong to use them in a war that's too unpopular and too irrelevant to justify mobilizing the entire generation.
We are too far away from the last real war in Europe, which was WWII, and forgot how massive thing it is. Let's start saying that a war or a preparation for it is an experience that cannot be expressed wholly by words. Our current life doesn't seem to be anything like that. That's because, IMHO, the war shenanigan is a forced artificial thing, imposed by background global forces just to sell some more weapons and spread some fear and worry. Not much more will happen.
19 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 39.8 ms ] threadhttps://www.bundeswehr.de/de/organisation/zahlen-daten-fakte...
Because it seems that for being so obsessed to be prepared for war the only ones affected are the working class. The rich are just wasting resources away like if there was no tomorrow.
I just see austerity 2.0 to cut citizens rights, cut services to the working class and transfer as much wealth and power to the super-rich as possible.
I am all for Europe being prepared for war. That is a necessity. So, I am all for better health care, better education, less dependency on foreign gas and oil, better funding for goverment programs ... real measures to be prepare for the worst and less bending over to rich foreign interests.
Why? Name one scenario where EU needs a bigger army and masses of barely-trained conscripts.
If you say "Ukraine loses", why not spend all effort on helping Ukraine instead?
> So, I am all for better health care, better education, less dependency on foreign gas and oil, better funding for goverment programs ...
You do realize that preparing for war is insanely expensive and can only be funded by cutting all those other nice things? Also, what do we need education for if we actually expect many people to die in World War style ground warfare?
How about: Let's build some nukes, spend the rest of the money on Ukraine support, and forget about ground war conscription lunacy?
In the US it was very fascinating to see the reaction to the Iran conflict. A bunch of geriatric pedowood actors and actual Epstein associates were seething that young men in general across the political spectrum who do not want to die in a pointless war of nothing in some god forsaken desert again.
The rule isn't new, it existed for decades all the way back to the beginnings of the Cold War. Nobody cared back then (neither the people nor the army), nobody should care now (there are no sanctions). I guess some journalist was actually reading through the consciption law (as probably the only person on the planet), stumbled over that passage and turned it into an elephant.
I'm opposed to conscription in general, but I live in Sweden with gender-neutral conscription laws, and I would do my best to defend my country if it became necessary. If I were a man in an alternate version of Sweden with male-only conscription, I would feel so disrespected and devalued by the state that I couldn't imagine myself defending it, so I would either join a non-state-affiliated resistance group or flee the country.
If I lived in Germany right now (even as a woman, but especially as a man), I would seriously consider emigrating to a more egalitarian country as soon as possible.
Having said that. The real problem with that law is not even the law itself but how it came to being, which unveils a completely messed up and incompetent legislative procedure in the German government and parliament.
Life is not fair, but you can learn to accept what is expected from you by the circumstances of your birth. I had to serve in the military, because I was born a man and a Finnish citizen. I accepted that, because it was my lot in life. My rights and duties would have been different, had I been a woman or a Swedish or US citizen.
On the other hand, I would have found it extremely unfair if conscription had been based on a random lot. Regardless of if it would have covered only men or women as well. It would be unfair to condemn someone to serve due to bad luck, when another person like them is allowed to walk free.
Universality is the fundamental justification for conscription. Conscripts should only have to fight in a war that is serious enough that the country is willing to send all its sons (and daughters, if you prefer that) to risk their lives. If the country does not believe in the war enough to justify that, it should send volunteers, not conscripts.
The vast majority of men in my grandparents' generation served in WW2. Most of them saw combat. That was always the expectation what conscription is supposed to be for. My parents' generation saw their peers in the US conscripted and sent to fight in Vietnam. But only some men were conscripted, and only some conscripts were sent to Vietnam. It's not inherently wrong to use conscripts in a foreign war, but it's wrong to use them in a war that's too unpopular and too irrelevant to justify mobilizing the entire generation.
https://youtu.be/dZUu6OkTHlY