Sweden brings back military conscription

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 6:13 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #183

chrisseaton wrote: post #6

How do you motivate a conscript? When I was in the British Army, which is volunteer only, commanding a basic training troop if someone was wanted to give up we could say to them 'if this isn't for you then you can go home' (of course we did coach and mentor people to help them, I mean in cases where people just give up and stop soldiering when an exercise gets tough). They usually worked extremely hard to get into th…

> What do you do with a conscript who never wanted to be there and possibly fundamentally isn't suited to military life anyway gives up? Threaten them with legal action? Military jail. > What do you do if they sort of do what they're told, but not really putting any effort into it? Crap assignments (ex: peel these 1000 potatoes then go clean that latrine) or military jail. Both are surprisingly motivating.

Post by ocschwar » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 6:14 PM UTC

muninn_ wrote: post #66

DamnYuppie wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need massive air and naval power to be very tough to attack. All you have to do is see the Afghan wars, both Russian and American, for great examples. They had no airforce and no need for naval forces. A large armed and mobile force is very able to put up solid resistance to pretty much anything you can throw at it save for nukes which will likely never be used.

Whatever military force was in Afghanistan never posed any sort of credible threat or resistance against the US military. The "resistance" that the US military faced came in terms of the US military wanting to try and recreate the society there, and having troops attacked while just driving around or facing resistance while conducting raids. If the US military wanted to, they could have easily destroyed every single…

Post by elygre » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

pilsetnieks wrote: post #145

zmb_ wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 200k dudes with guns Conscript military doesn't mean that you just teach everyone to dig a hole and sit in it with a rifle. You train conscripts into every role you need in a 200k strong modern military. Including operators and maintainers of the hi-tech death machines, sigint operatives, radar operators, tank crews, missile forces, officers of all kinds, and yes, the guys that dig holes and sit in them with rifles…

You literally cannot use conscripts for anything of "operators and maintainers of the hi-tech death machines, sigint operatives, radar operators, tank crews, missile forces, officers." First of all, most of them take at least a year to get up to speed, if not more, and they have to maintain their competence. You cannot just release a conscript after his year long stint, and call him up ten years later - the ten year…

Post by derefr » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 6:18 PM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #193

derefr wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if a group of conscripts decide that they'd rather "save themselves" by blowing themselves up, along with $100mm of your materiel? And then this becomes a meme—something other conscripts hear about and copy? I could see that happening if conscription ever returned in the US—we have an awful lot of "violent pacifists" (picture what happens if you draft some of the police-brutality protestors.)

We have thousands of years of histories of armies. How often has this happened?

Post by muninn_ » Thu, Mar 02, 2017, 6:19 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #163

BurningFrog wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. But the cost to Afghanistan has been enormous. Four decades of constant war, millions dead, and near the lowest lifespan and living standard in the world. Is that really the defense strategy a country should aim for ? Will a modern latte sipping atheist nation really execute it? Also, there are many other reasons to invade countries than to hold them long term.

It does present a deterrent for the enemy who would like to invade and hold your territory. So it addresses that kind of attack. It does not address other kinds. In a war, your losses don't usually concern your enemy. But they do care about how much it costs them to achieve their goals, so if you can make it prohibitively expensive, you have a sound defense.