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That makes sense and good on them for conscription not caring about gender

At this stage it's all hot air. Nobody has even started talking about how to finance it and the defense minister isn't even 100% sure he will get his requested additional funds for the next cycle. When somebody asked him about the topic he replied that he isn't categorically against it but he would have to finance (and restructure, as the necessary infrastructure for it has been degraded/scrapped) more important topics first.

It isn't just about the military. I've not read the article, but Germany suffers from not having enough people working in social services. This problem got worse after getting rid of conscription. You could either choose military service or social work.

By reintroducing it, they hope to fill in some gaps.

Sometimes open war comes upon you, whether you risk it or not.

You'd be a fool not to at this point.

It’s because the leaders aren’t the ones fighting the battles or being targeted. They’re playing chess somewhere far from the violence.

This is PATENTLY wrong. It's 1.49% of GDP, not budget.

Defense budget is 10.9% of the governments budget, it's the second largest budgeted item after social wellfare and in front of infrastructure (which is crumbling) and debt. To increase it to 2% of gross domestic product means spending an additional amount equal to the entire budget for education and research.

It's a serious proposal, but not as a universal conscription. It's intended to only call everyone in for the health check and use that as a way to get young people interested in the army.

There are different models floating around, the most serious being that everyone (including women) gets called in and you basically choose between civil service and army. The civilian side can ramp up slots rather quickly, the army doesn't. So the army probably will ramp up over several years.

Also, I wouldn't call 100 billion € a "modest increase".

The best argument for conscription is that, like politics or the police, the psychology predisposed to choosing it is not necessarily the most beneficial to be involved with it.

If you could choose to serve only in natural disaster relief, humanitarian, or aid operations it would make it significantly less conflicting.

Ultimately the requirement to be involved with, and potentially murder, in anti-democratic or anti-humanitarian operations, and acts of aggression, that could have been decided entirely by self-serving corporate or political interests makes conscription a dealbreaker.

Haven't heard a stronger backwards boomer opinion in ages. Gheez...

Nothing gives people self-reliance like training them to do exactly as they are told, nothing more, nothing less and god forbid they develop a thought of their own on an issue and consider voicing it.

Do the army even want a bunch of nerds, theatre kids, goths and bisexual disasters - speaking as someone who was all of those as a teen - in the army? I thought the army liked people who shut up and ran around a field.

"Oh if you don't they put you in jail"

ok how is that good for society?

Draft soldiers of Germany are not allowed to operate outside of our own borders and are used to fill the gaps that stem from professional soldiers working abroad. The Bundeswehr and especially the draftees can only be used for peacekeeping, humanitarian aid and defense.

As much as I would like to see Russia get shitmixed by a proper first world army (not that Ukraine hasn't been doing phenomenally), I think that might actually put putin in a corner.

Ideally we'll just keep giving Ukraine equipment and propagandize how hard they're kicking russian ass and sanction the hell out of Russia until the people and oligarchs lose their appetite for Ukraine.

How about our military stays between our own borders. Let those that want to go go. But don't force a bunch of our youth to go fight someone else's war.