[Happy Times]

One should not force somebody to participate in a war and the killing of people against his convictions and/or decisions.

We have the civil service option for these people, some 6% take it.

But a member of the military cannot be given the freedom to choose freely in which war he wants to serve, and in which one not - if the situation occurs, a military memeber has to go and fight, no matter what he thinks, period.

Our career soldiers officers, NCOs and enlisted men go were ordered. Theres always more volunteers to foreign missions than they have need.

That's why I am against conscription in general, for principal reasons. It is not a job just like any other, and thus should be left to those who really put, for whatever their reasons are, their heart into it, fully accepting the consequences and knowing what they give up : the freedom to choose.

No reason to be against. They have given vows to defend their country, nobody forces them. Why wouldnt a citizen want to defend his country? If someone has a problem in doing that i think it is only selfishness, but they have the civil service.

Also, I refuse the idea to accumulate extra points, or prestige in the widest sense, in military service that can be changed for advantages in later civilian life, or gain access to posts and universities places that else would have remained locked. That is a little bit too totalitarian a society system for me. It reminds me of the draft of a society you can see in that Verhoeven-movie "Starship Troopers". Maybe that and other latent criticism in it were the reason why it was a flop in the anglosaxon world? Becasue it painted out how temtping a fascist society is - because it could function. The question is for the cost of that.

Its not like they wouldnt get in college otherwise. Its just a way to reward them for giving this service to their country. Its the state that is the real winner, they get the best talent to serve in the military. Of the 30.000 concripts a year, some 1400 are selected to the officer school in Hamina. Most of our leaders in goverment, business and research are reserve officers. Some even stay instead of going to some better paid civilian career. For our fachist state it has worked well for 90 years and is combat tested.

So, military conscription is never acceptable for me, for principal and ethical reasons. And ugly experience tells that such a system also is no remedy to racism (becasue somebody mentioned that) or extremism.Referring to german military as well as other military - it'S a problem everyhwere, as I see it. Is Finland really that different?

Finns have actually very racist attitudes sometimes. But its mostly towards those that people feel dont appreciate what we have built here. I can honestly say that there wasnt any racism when i served. We had people of vietnamese, african and russian decent in our patch. They really wanted to be there, when they saw they get treated the same by their superiors and respect for being there from their peers. I remember an african who didnt know how to ski but went on stubbornly. He got the respect of us all. Most of these imigrants went to NCO school. Their families seemed very proud at the graduation, they knew what it ment in our society.