Which of your children would take up arms if need be to defend their country

Take a look at Gaza, what country is left for them to fight for?

Very brave of you to say you’d stay and fight 😂 Yes, I’m sure the threat of your family being raped, murdered, trafficked or tortured is just MINOR in the grand scheme of things!

and yes I am generalising as the majority of migrants are not barbarians and the minority should not mean we turn our backs on the genuine cases.

but yeah, your privilege is hilarious.

@Natsku

Agree.

Most here are in the fortunate position of being able to debate the issue, and their kids have the right as to whether to serve or not..

The question is whether it would be worth signing up to preserve that status quo..

Oh, and the idea of being exempt from service due medical reasons is great, but would be of limited value under many regimes...

Are all their countries at war? Or are they leaving to escape persecution for a whole variety of reasons? I don’t understand the relevance to this thread.

You'd prefer someone else fight for your freedom and autonomy instead?

It sounds like a very difficult situation and i understand the threat. It just makes me so sad that this has to happen all because the rich and powerful unhinged leaders of some countries want their last ejaculation of violence because they clearly are too old and impotent to realise it any other way.

And the IRA had a lot of funding from the US. Would you say that makes it OK for us to bomb them?

Can he claim asylum in Finland.

Realise they don't have to fight? Eh, they don't have a choice, anyone who had the money left Russia, your faith for refusing would be worse at death on the battle field.

Some are forced into it, definitely, there's a young Russian man in Finland that is in a very difficult situation because he needs to renew his Russian passport to renew his residence permit but going back to Russia to renew his passport risks him being forced into the army. I feel for those young men that are forced, and they don't really have much of an option - prison in Russia is brutal. But there is also the reality that many in the Russian army are just brutal rapists and murderers, Ukraine has shown that.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8175/

Dont we have a military to protect us in these kind of events. Let them crack on playing toy soldiers with other peoples lives and leave my kids out of it.

DD definitely not, DS yes 100%.
5 nieces, 2 would, tough all ireland gaa champions, they'd use a hurl for hit molotov cocktails.
4 nephews, 3 of 4 would.

This has crossed my mind too. I would, probably wouldn't be much use, underweight mid 40.

Growing up, defending your country was talked about a lot so it is in my mind that someday it could happen.

What could you do. No whereas to run or hide.

Men can choose civilian service, they don't have to do military service but they would still have to help defend the country if we are invaded, just not with weapons. Men that choose to reject both options do get jailed, I would not advise that for my children, it'll fuck up their futures. I also wouldn't recommend them not serving - we are a vulnerable country that needs to be able to defend itself, which requires all of us. Finland isn't starting wars of its own, we're not adding more wars to the world.

I’d be hoping they prefer to keep their lives how they are maybe the generation of lost and troubled teens will hopefully break the cycle as they can’t/wont fight.

All these lost troubled teens -a spell of training for a reserve army would do a lot of good imv -it’s great being physically fit and having to mix with a random mix of people is probably good for you.
I know one lad in the army and he seems to enjoy it.

DCs are probably a bit old as settled in careers but would if they had to and DGcs too young

Hopefully young Russians realise that they don’t have to fight either. I assume they are told they have to and are threatened. Again by a leader in his 70s hell bent on going out of this world firmly in the history books because he’s yet another insecure narcissist

Exactly this. The country I was born in is merely a matter of chance - I'm not going to die for it thanks, and neither is anyone else in my family.

I'll do useful jobs if necessary, will use my brains to try to escape or help others escape, but I'm not taking up arms against someone else's child who probably doesn't want to be there either.

Please tell me this is satire..

You don’t have to though. I was reading yesterday about some young Israelis who refused and were jailed. I’m assuming the same would happen in Finland if service was refused? More people need to say no. We don’t need to have more wars.

And of course any war in Finland would be Russia invading, so its a choice between defending or being raped and/or murdered by the Russian army so its an obvious choice to defend our country.

I live in Finland which operates under the system of Total Defence so it doesn't matter whether or not anyone would want to defend their country, we all have to anyway. Not all taking up arms, that's only for those in the reserves, so the vast majority of adult men and a proportion of women - the rest have to help in other ways like logistics I suppose, anyone with medical training being deployed as medics. I expect I would have to do maintenance on military aircraft.

I have two children, a teenage DD who I can't imagine choosing to do the voluntary military service that women can do, and I doubt conscription will be mandatory for women by the time she's 18 but in a war situation I am fairly confident she would want to do what she can.

Other child is my DS, only 7, so of course no opinion yet, but he'll be called up when he's 18.

It would depend entirely on the reasons for war and who the aggressor was. Knowing how much we already interfere with other countries to their detriment, there’s a good chance that none of us would agree with our own country’s actions, so we’d emigrate before risking our lives for an unjust cause.

Hopefully our language skills would come in handy, so might be 'fighting' in a different manner.

Agree

id have them sectioned , chain them in the basement or deported before id let them go into battle

I take it you are not from a military family , trust me having someone you love in a war zone is horrific dealing with the loss of their comrades and the aftermath if what they have seen and done leaves a lasting mark

weird day dreaming …, please god no more wars

That's a lot of "first on the front lines!"

I wonder who would be first first 😂