this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm assuming all this is coming up because they think there's a decent chance that Trump could win the election and take the US out of NATO, so everyone else will have to scramble to cover for them.

That being said, if the UK government thinks they can strip the Army to the bone and privatise the recruitment process to line their mates pockets, then expect the public to go off and fight so they can stay comfy at home, there is not yet a unit of measurement big enough to describe how far off they can fuck.

I know they say they don't want conscription, which is exactly why I assume that is precisely what they want.

I'd advise everyone else to tell them to get fucked too - they can't put everyone who says no in prison, because they've stripped that to the bone as well and there's no room.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think it’s about more than just the conflict in Ukraine, would could itself become a wider European conflict. There’s also spiralling conflict in the Middle East, the situation with Taiwan, and potential wars brewing elsewhere in Africa, Asia, and South America. That’s before considering the longer term conflicts that could be triggered by climate change.

We’ve been living through a period of relative stability, but now the world is swinging towards instability and perhaps we really aren’t prepared for it. Post Cold War politics have seen the military as something that could be cut back on. Maybe we should reconsider that, and before we have to consider ideas like national conscription.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

You've just described the 2000s.

Nothing has changed. It just feels that way because we had a brief period of quiet during the 2010s between the endless of slew of wars that have been happening since long before any of us were born, and the invasion of Crimea.

Journos are already growing weary of Ukraine and Gaza. It'll be out of the public conscience by Christmas '24 and noone will remember some toerag general with a sadism fetish and a conscription fantasy talking nonsense on bbc breakfast.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm fine. When it was a kid I was in a car crash and broke my wrist, and it never healed right so I actually couldn't hold a gun as I can't get my hand to go into the correct position.

I could probably hold it with my left had but I'm not going to bring that up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

There are many roles in the military that don't require a gun. The military also has more sophisticated standards for assessing a person fitness to serve than they did in WW2. There are infantry members missing legs now.