| Boris, why you felt the need to PM me that message too, I have no idea.
But it's a bit patronising. You're making complete assumptions about everyone else.
I'm Irish - a neutral country - but my grandfathers both decided to volunteer to fight in WWII, one as an RAF pilot, to protect Britain (when they had absolutely no need to). I fully understand the point of joining the army to protect your country or your values.
But the rest of your post just seemed to turn into some "respect the army, respect me!!" rant. I don't disrespect the army at all. I've just said I'm against conscription, unless it happens to be WWIII.
Sure, it's great that the armies help people in disaster situations. It's also great that nurses and doctors treat people. It's great that teachers educate children. It's great that farmers make food for us to eat. It's all great and lovely. But it has absolutely no barring on being forced into conscription to 'serve and love your country'.
What I learnt from my short few months in training, was that, aside from having fun with friends over a drink at the end of the day, the entire process was fucking physical and mental torture, presumably with the goal of turning you into some kind of mindless order-obeying machine. I just seem to remember a good deal of it being up at 5:30am every morning to run in the ice cold, lots more running after that, with a spot of cleaning urinals with a tooth brush (oh yes, and it did seem all the seniors were the definition of a bully). As treatment goes, it's about as poor as I've seen humans treated in the first world, so no, I'm not really all singing for conscription and shouting for everyone to go join the army.
As for the "soldiers are better than you, they have the skills" - it seems 9 times out of 10, the soldiers are soldiers precisely because they don't have the skills or intelligence. It's a last resort. They either fuck up their A Levels or have no other options, so they go to the barracks, then get sent out to Iraq to be shot at. The reality is, the more intelligent people usually have the wealth and intelligence to avoid going to hostile places to be shot at.
RE The PLA... the same PLA that execute Chinese and send their parents a bill for the bullet?  |