Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymouse
And has anyone thought to ask the Regulars what they think? I doubt it. It's all very well expecting National Service draftees to pursue peacetime roles (not that a lot of 'em aren't doing that already). But what happens if they're actually called up?!
Ask a 20-year squaddie if s/he wants an untrained civilian, a mere 18 years of age at that, to back them up in a firefight. You think the Armed Forces are down now? Regulars will quit en masse in self-preservation, and hang their pensions - you can't spend money if you're dead!
No, the Tories are doomed now. For a whole bunch of reasons, this will never fly.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymouse
Welll...you might have a point. But young people these days want - indeed, demand - a choice. And Heinlein was right about conscription. I think he believed that any country which had to rely on conscription wasn't worth defending in the first place. That, in fact, was the point of Starship Troopers - the novel, not the film. Anyone serving did so because they wanted to (though at one point Rico couldn't for one moment recall why he'd signed up, and it wasn't when he took his licks - the Mobile Infantry was actually paying him a compliment of sorts, i.e. 'yes, you screwed up, but you might be salvageable, so we'll give you something you'll never forget', rather than kicking him out. Had Rico messed up as badly as he did in the film, he'd have been immediately discharged dishonourably and possibly charged with involuntary manslaughter).
Voluntarily, it might work. Might. As conscription, it can't work. I think Sunak has just lost the vote of anyone affected by this. And TBH, if I were in combat - a prospect more unlikely than me winning the National Lottery...especially as I don't play it - I wouldn't want some rookie backing me up. They won't either, and who could blame them?
I agree that the young need some discipline and boundaries. But this isn't the way (though I concede I don't really have an alternative).
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You know Heinlein's fascist Earth wasn't worth fighting for but Britain in WWII was, in fact this country was fighting against what that Earth became.
Your view of the young people involved isn't congruent with what happened post WWII either, for instance there were a number of National Service conscripts in the Gloucestershire Regiment at Imgin River and I doubt there was a single veteran who wasn't grateful
some rookie was watching their back that day