Conscription -should UK initiate?

Enlistment or conscription was a topic written about in the first world war by Annette Mary Budgett Meakin

books.google.co.uk/books/about/Enlistment_Or_Conscription.html?id=4xFAAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y

What an amazing assertion Hetty. How do you speak for all young people in the UK?

People's human rights and mental health do need to be protected.

It's a sorry old state we'll find ourselves in, if not.

Conscription could be valuable in some ways. A short spell of training would do no harm to most young people. At the end, it could highlight, to some, that a career in the forces is appealing, ( or not ) and also allow those in charge to
‘ weed out ‘ the ones that they viewed as unsuitable candidates for a military career.

but people who went to war did come back with mental health problems. I worked in a care home in the 90s whilst I was a student and many of the people there were having flashbacks or episodes where they thought they were back in the war (or prisoners during the war) I've not thought about this for a long time, I wonder if it was common

Yes, citing their human rights and mental health …

If it ever happened (I doubt it would) I can't see many young people of today cooperating. My father volunteered, aged 17, to join the RAF, along with his friends. It was seen as the patriotic thing to do. They had absolutely no idea of the hell they were facing and he was the only one to survive.

Today's youngsters tend to be well informed, unpatriotic, educated pacifists - and would simply refuse, whatever the 'rules'.

Knittypamela

No. I would not want my son or grandsons sent to war. Our family gave enough. My grandfather, father and husband all served.

I doubt their parents and grandparents wanted them to go to war either - but if they and their like had not done so where would we, and other European countries, be?

Everyone just talks about The Army ........

From what we can make out on here Callistemon theres some folk saying that in France the conscription (national service??) went on till more recent?I think thats what they're saying.?

Do posters think those who might just think more should be spent on defence are warmongerers?

There is much naivety on this thread.

No. I would not want my son or grandsons sent to war. Our family gave enough. My grandfather, father and husband all served.

I think for " respect" read dismantling of personality and being trained to kill people.

WW2 is definitely well and truly over. We are not the plucky little island nation defeating the baddies.

Well I dont want my grandchildren being sent to be potentially killed, and if they did sign up as my middle grandson at this point wants to go in the millitry. I want people with him also choose this not forced.forcing mekes us no better than other dictators.

I believe that 12 - 24 months of 'National Service', be it 'military' service or 'community' service, could be of great benefit for both the young person and society.

But in the event of WWIII, young people would be conscripted into the forces just as they were for the 2 previous world wars.

Personally I would prefer my grandchildren to receive 12-24 months training during peace time than 8 weeks in the event of international hostilities.

Elz57

I believe it would be the way forward give the youth of today a purpose and instil some respect into them.

Respect? I've never understood why having someone barking orders at you is supposed to instil 'respect'! And what is the purpose? Learning that pretty much everyone not British is to be considered the enemy? How to kill people? Personally I'd ban the arms trade all together. How can we complain that those in Gaza are victims of genocide when WE sell the weapons?

Yes, I suspect that's the case, as much as anything.

I'm neither proud nor ashamed either way.

Grateful though, to be able to post what I want without censorship or repercussions..

MissAdventure

Perhaps young people are being raised by people who are ashamed to be British?

Its said fairly regularly on here.

Pride in what is merely an accident of where you happen to be born isn't a great thing. Maybe we have a generation (at last, though mine were there too) who question whether fighting and killing is the best way to sort out the world's problems.

Dinahmo

I think that fewer young people are applying to join the army because they have see the way in which our veterans have been treated - which is appallingly. Some of them are living on the streets, homeless because much has gone wrong with their lives and they are also suffering from PTSD.

I think a lot of young people join the army etc when they have few family connections and little hope in the education system. When they come to leave, they are losing what 'family' they thought they had. The forces need to be careful who they take on. And maybe equip those kids for life as independent beings when they are at a later stage. In the forces they have everything provided for them - food, accommodation, social life. Suddenly being without it, if you don't have a supportive family to return to, must be horrendous.

That is spot on.
Exactly what I meant, but you explained it better.

Thank you.

MissInterpreted

MissAdventure

Of course you're proud.
Anybody would be.

I wasn't referring to your son, specifically.

It's a broad and well used term.

It may be well used, but in my view, it's a term which says more about the person using it than those to whom it is supposed to refer.

In defence of Miss Adventure... it's a term used by those who think or feel that the hierarchy regard them as cannon-fodder. Those who sit behind desks and talk about young men and women in terms of numbers to be moved from A to B on the battlefield.

It is through contempt for those that appear to have little compassion or concern for human life, that the term evolved.

I believe it's based on a French author's condemnation of Napoleon's wasting of conscripts' lives. They became cannon-fodder.

So I don't think those that use the terminology are in any way disdainful or disrespectful of those that serve. Quite the contrary.

I have reported your racist (and appallingly written) post.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Well I get this could be a way of training youngsters into a career, setting them on the right path. But, no one should be made to ‘join up’ and then have to go to war. If you join the forces voluntarily then you know that there could be a possibility of fighting in a war. If youre doing national service then this is not by choice, no war service should be expected.

Cateq

I don’t think conscription is acceptable I’ve seen what it does to people my cousin was a conscript in the American army during Vietnam war, he arrived in the uk on the way there. He brought a group of his mates to visit our Gran, one of them came from a dirt poor family who never had a new pair of boots until he joined the army, he lasted four weeks before he died. I don’t want that for any of my sons or nephews

Defence of one's own country is one thing, interfering in the politics of other countries is quite different.