The US armed forces have not been able to meet their recruitment numbers for the last 3 years. This NYT article points at lowering of recruitment standards just to be able to meet numbers.
In a conversation with a friend I came to know about the compulsory service with the armed forces policy in Singapore. Singapore was desperate to build its army in 1967 since it feared transgression of 2 large muslim states bordering it.
"After World War I Germany was forbidden to use compulsory military service under the Treaty of Versailles. The consequences were that the armed forces became increasingly isolated from society and developed an indifferent attitude towards the democratic system ("a state within the state").". This page tries to rationalize the universal conscription in the Bundeswehr.
Isnt "compulsory service" antithetical to the concept of "free will" ?? Personally I would love to have a world army of Gandhians who would be responsible of solving issues in Rwanda or Darfur or Iraq or Palestine. But given that we are still not a world community and take a lot of pride in maintaining our national identity the practicality lies in the fact that we have our national armies.
Compulsory service could be replaced by something similar to ROTC (in USA) minus their bias against certain sections of the society. If young people can be made aware of the reasons for having a military and given an opporutnity to have a close look at life with the armed forces we might inspire people to join the army. Also the people who join this way will be more likely to understand the reasons for going into combat. It should be interesting to see how many recruits a program like ROTC can generate.
Ramki said...
I agree with you that forcing people to join the army is against the so called freedom of the individual.
This Gandian movement is possible probably after hundreds of years when the whole world is under one US (or) China (or) whatever power come may. Till then, countries have to have their military machines oiled and ready for any kind of attack.
In 1961, India suffered as it was totally caught by surprise when China attacked. India was spending only the maintenance cost for the military and totally focused on developing villages. China was totally aware of this and attacked India and Aksai Chin is still in Chinese hands. So keeping a reasonably good military force is as important as economic development.
Having said not many join armed forces, not because of fear of life, but because it is not so lucrative. Any other job is high paying than military jobs. I guess if they pay the JAWANs well, then there will be more takers for the jobs and remember then it will not be against freewill.
Even in US the pay of soilders is very less compared to other jobs. So I guess pay is the problem here!