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Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

bbc.com

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Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#71

Post by aleph_minus_one »

alistairSH wrote: post #64
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compulsory military service (or alternative national service) never ended in Germany; in 2011 it was only suspended .

I don’t know the details… does the suspension make the current state in Germany similar to the Selective Service requirement in the US? Or is it “easy” for the German government to establish a draft?

> does the suspension make the current state in Germany similar to the Selective Service requirement in the US?

I don't know how the Selective Service requirement in the US works, so I can't answer this question.

> Or is it “easy” for the German government to establish a draft?

Such a (temporary) suspension can hypothetically terminated at any time by the government. The question is basically how the population will react. I guess if the suspension of the general conscription would be terminated by the government, there would be really furious public rallies (and I am rather certain that my boss would immediately attempt to approve a vacation request if I wanted to attend such a rally in Berlin if it happened during the work week - just as an "innocent" kind of support for this cause from behind the lines :-) ) because multiple generations got really radicalized against compulsory military service (I wrote about this topic at https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=46177817 ).

This is why the German government currently attempts to approach the whole topic of quitting the suspension of compulsory military service so indirectly.

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#73

Post by hopelite »

appreciatorBus wrote: post #17

> "We don't want to spend half a year of our lives locked up in barracks, being trained in drill and obedience and learning to kill," the organisers of the protests wrote in a statement posted on social media. "War offers no prospects for the future and destroys our livelihoods." Is the idea that it’s better for your livelihood to just start learning how speak Russian now?

[flagged]

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#74

Post by sunshine-o »

hopelite wrote: post #52
appreciatorBus wrote: post #17

> "We don't want to spend half a year of our lives locked up in barracks, being trained in drill and obedience and learning to kill," the organisers of the protests wrote in a statement posted on social media. "War offers no prospects for the future and destroys our livelihoods." Is the idea that it’s better for your livelihood to just start learning how speak Russian now?

[flagged]

Simply because all bets are off when they come back armed, trained, hardened and angry.

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#75

Post by ihsw »

appreciatorBus wrote: post #17

> "We don't want to spend half a year of our lives locked up in barracks, being trained in drill and obedience and learning to kill," the organisers of the protests wrote in a statement posted on social media. "War offers no prospects for the future and destroys our livelihoods." Is the idea that it’s better for your livelihood to just start learning how speak Russian now?

[dead]

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#76

Post by friendlyasparag »

hopelite wrote: post #67
poplarsol wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The German government will be the first ones to tell you that the German language and ancestry is totally unrelated to the idea of who gets to be German.

[flagged]

What the heck is this racist drivel

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#77

Post by alistairSH »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #71
alistairSH wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know the details… does the suspension make the current state in Germany similar to the Selective Service requirement in the US? Or is it “easy” for the German government to establish a draft?

> does the suspension make the current state in Germany similar to the Selective Service requirement in the US? I don't know how the Selective Service requirement in the US works, so I can't answer this question. > Or is it “easy” for the German government to establish a draft? Such a (temporary) suspension can hypothetically terminated at any time by the government. The question is basically how the population will…

In the US, men have to register for potential draft within a few months of turning 18. Women still exempt. But instituting an active draft wound take an act of congress and be signed by president - very unlikely to pass for the same reason you mention in German - the population likely wouldn’t stand for it.

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#78

Post by ihsw »

embedding-shape wrote: post #15
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #12

[flagged]

> What I didn't see were any young Germans Seems ~20% of the population are immigrants ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg#Demographics ), some of the people you saw are Germans and some of them are not, but I think the main confusing part is how you mix up how someone looks and what nationality they have. I think maybe you're trying to say "white" instead, but for some reason avoided using that word?

[dead]

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#79

Post by Balgair »

nothercastle wrote: post #21
throwaway2027 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When push comes to shove, men and women aren't equal

When it comes to being drone operators or targets it’s probably a negligible difference

Actually you make a good point here. Women have better reaction times then men, so female drone operators, all else being equal, may be better at the job.

Re: Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

#80

Post by frmersdog »

appreciatorBus wrote: post #17

> "We don't want to spend half a year of our lives locked up in barracks, being trained in drill and obedience and learning to kill," the organisers of the protests wrote in a statement posted on social media. "War offers no prospects for the future and destroys our livelihoods." Is the idea that it’s better for your livelihood to just start learning how speak Russian now?

History shows that the best way to resist, in these circumstances, might be to let them in, and then blow them up in the streets and countryside until they leave. It's cheaper and (morbidly enough) probably has a lower human cost.
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