America needs to do this as well.

  • BearOfaTime
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    2 months ago

    US military learned during WWII that conscription doesn’t yield good troops.

    Think about it in today’s military. Draftees will do enough to stay out of the stockade. While it’s a fictional movie, go watch The Dirty Dozen, which does a great job showing what motivates people in such a circumstance.

    Now, draft someone, I don’t know, to be an Air Traffic Controller…

    The US has no need to be drafting soldiers right now.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      US military learned that drafting didn’t yield good troops for them.

      Being in a lottery in which the loser gets to go halfway around the planet to fight foreign people on foreign soil didn’t yield the best troops, for the US, at the time.

      However, look at countries who were more directly defending themselves. Like Finland.

      We never gave up conscription and our soldiers are good.

      https://www.quora.com/Did-the-Finnish-military-just-beat-the-US-Marines-in-Cold-Response

      The HQ and communications company of the Finnish Batallion defeated a USMC unit after its helicopter landing near the Finnish HQ

      As someone who was an NCO in the HQ and comms company, I can tell you that’s basically where you put the guys with the worst motivation for training. It’s the shortest time to serve, simple jobs, usually not much fighting involved.

      And a group of them beat US marine in this exercise.

      https://yle.fi/a/74-20067662

      #Conscripts’ will to defend Finland highest in a decade

      The will of conscripts to defend Finland is at its highest in nearly 10 years, according to a feedback survey conducted by the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) among conscripts who were discharged in December.

      On a scale of 1 to 5, conscripts rated their willingness to defend Finland with an average score of 4.6 — the highest in the survey’s history which has been conducted annually since 2014.

      A feeling of satisfaction with conscript service was also high (4.3), according to the survey.

      The poll also found conscripts were overall positive about things like physical training (3.8), training staff (4.3), squad leaders (4.0) and officer candidates (4.3).

      The war in Ukraine had strengthened conscripts’ motivation to serve and their will to defend their country, according to an FDF press release.

      There zero chance of us having an equally large, equally skilled military without conscription. ~75% of Finnish men complete conscription. That and a significant portion of women as well.

      How in the hell would anyone ever fund a military like that privately in a country our size?

      The US military is very powerful indeed, but not very cost effective. Just very fucking expensive.

    • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      I’ve heard the idea that drill sergeants abusing new recruits like you see in movies isn’t actually a thing, not anymore anyways. It was a thing when new recruits were conscripted and didn’t want to be there. Recruits today actually do want to be there and don’t need any abuse to keep them in line.

  • ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Hard disagree. America already has a large, professional, experienced military and sufficient reserves to call on if needed, they could defeat Russia easily in any conventional conflict without the need for conscription.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      Yes, and I am sure you could count on that if the fat orange blob in diapers makes it into the white house again later this year.

  • maniii@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    East Europe has to draft now to train enough soldiers to fight a future war. Else Russia+Putin are either going to invade, or Putin will get purged and some nitwit is going to be in charge after the fallout over the ashes of what remains of Eastern Europe.

    Watch as Putin expands into Georgia, parts of Poland, most of the Eastern-Bloc like Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, etc.

    Problem of N.Korea and China attempting to invade and take over most of Southern+Eastern Russian / Siberian borders are highly likely if Putin/Russia fall into chaos.

    When Drumpf gets in Nov2024 , watch as Putin escalates during Jan2025 in the middle of winter and tries again to pound Ukraine into snowdust. Watch the world Burn Baby Burn. It is scary, do what you have to survive and have the good times now. Cause the wind is blowin’ and the Times they are a changin’