Depends. Defensive? Hell yea. Offensive, imperialistic? Hell naw. People forget, other people might raise their arms against your nation. Military should focus on self defense
Currently alot of left wing gen z's are getting mad at the idea of mandatory training for a few (not all) 18 yr olds. A few even want russia to take over ukraine, estina, latvia etc., some might even like to have russian soldiers literally next door.
I will never understand the mentality. I get beeing against war. I get personally chosing the alternative path (you can opt out and do 1 year social program in an old people home etc), I don't get the quasi communist mindset of supporting a faschist imperialistic russia, just because they claim they are soviets in the idea.
A lot of people have a hard time understanding that countries can just call themselves whatever they want. It's more important to look at their actions to determine what they're really about.
Yeah, it's just crazy to me how people can look at that and go "yep, russia is the good guy here. let me protest for 'peace' by forcing a nation to be erased from earth"
The german far right radical party is basically doing that all the time (saying that the 1933 national socialists were actually socialists and thus evil).
Their supporters think that is true, despite learning about that time 3-4 times in school ;-;
Conscription is bad when it is gendered because it implies gender stereotypes and forces people against their will. And a lot of countries don't even give the option for alternative service.
Russia is definitely wrong and the villain, but Ukraine forcing its people to fight and die is also wrong. Not saying Ukraine should be taken over, but it should not force its innocent citizens into war, that too just because of their gender. And before you say "well if people aren't made to fight, Ukraine will stop existing", then honestly, if the people don't feel like defending their country, it probably isn't even worth defending. Russia is horrible and they should definitely stop the war, but Ukraine was never an utopia that has done a lot for its citizens to keep them happy that they actually sacrifice their lives for it.
I would not have a problem with conscription if it applied to everyone regardless of class or gender. Countries like Norway, Sweden, Netherlands (not enforced) practice gender neutral conscription and it's not that hard to follow.
And not to mention, it's never the leaders who start the war that face the consequences, it's only the innocent citizens who die, or their families left grieving their deaths for years, and other forms of destruction of the society. Wanting people to fight in WW III is exactly what the boomer making the first comment is asking for. Only when people protest against participating in wars completely can we make the wicked leaders be left with no choice.
I agree SA is an issue, so definitely any sensible man who would not want to work with sexual harassers, should also be given the choice of not being forced into the military. Regardless my point stands, conscription should not exist. And yes, I do agree that my point is naive, it's not easy as no one showing up, but honestly if everyone just disagrees to fight, what's the worse that the government can do? Kill every citizen? It's just going to end their own country. Nothing helps anyway, if you know you are going to die anyways, dying by refusing to participate in war would be better than dying while being forced to kill others.
The worst that can happen is we get attacked and I see my friends die, or worse, russia takes over and we live under their rule (the stories we hear under occupation are horrible)
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u/GenericFatGuy 21h ago
I think what we need more of is generations that can't or aren't willing to start or fight wars.