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[nadinbrzezinski]

722. You would have a problem serving side by side

with a trooper from the Tzayeret Maatkal? (Those special forces troopers actually compete to get into the special forces starting in HS, because to be that is the highest level of service in the IDF) How the German Landswher?

Did I mention Norway? Then there is France, and to a point Belgium. I could point to others but.

Hell, even your neighbors to the south have a military service, though I will grant you that draftees do far more public service and close order drill, and rarely, if ever, touch an actual weapon, but they also have a mandatory one year of social service when people finish college before they are given their degrees. (There are problems with the implementation of that, but the point is they have it. There is less anomie as well, somehow I think it is related, but I could be wrong.)

There are other countries outside of Europe that have a strong tradition of military service as part of their path to citizenship. And they are not that bad, and by the way I do not consider the US to be that great. It used to be a much more freer nation, but in case you have missed it, god are we losing our place in that sense. Check what journalist organizations have to say about freedom in the US for example, and how that continues to go down.

I will not give you either Greece or Turkey since they see draftees lower than dirt, and in fact Judges still play the game of prison or army. So generally speaking first termers and lower enlisted really are abused.

Don't worry about a draft though, two groups in this country do not want it, and it matters little if the American people agreed with it or not (they don't, they prefer the poverty draft we have in place though) That be the military brass and the oligarchy. So this is purely navel gazing, but you know what? You are way off on this one. The brass has this myth that draftees are not good soldiers, when all data from wars like WW II and Korea and even Nam points out to draftees being very good soldiers. They were just not career. And that... was something that the professional brass ring knocker type hated. These people had no careers to protect and at times spilled the beans when the military misbehaved. (As all militaries do from time to time). Career troopers are less likely to talk.

Now if you want to offer African militaries, you have a point. NK, absolutely. And Russia, they are actually in a conversion to an all volunteer force. They are also in the middle of a wonderful imperial design, but hell, what can I say?

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703678404575636412726670020

No, the combat forces we are likely seeing do not have conscripts.