Conscription, in this day and age.

[Vebrithien]

Somewhat morbid thinking, but I was wondering what would happen with conscription now days, if it was ever used again.

As far as I can recall, in WWII, it started with young, single men (after volunteers). Then moved up in age, and into the married men.

Given that so many people now have children without marrying, how would the powers that be get around it? Would you be conscripted if you didn't have children? Would absent father's suddenly be claiming their children? Or would it be linked to marital status still. Would there be a rush of weddings? And again, would it still only ever be men? What would happen to non-binary people, or trans people? If women with children were conscripted, would there be fail safes to ensure that their other parent wasn't conscripted?

What do you think?

Happy that DP has the world’s worst eyesight so wouldn’t be called up. He’s very good at computers though so they’d probably make him data analyse smart bombs or something.

Back in those days, people were more used to obeying authority figures such as the police and teachers. Doctors were rarely questioned on their decisions. Look at today though. So much 'I've got rights, you can't touch me,' and 'I'm exempt because....'
If conscription was made legal, I can see a lot of men / women refusing, so you'd have protests (oh wait, hasn't Boris thought of that one?) and clashes with police.
A war now would be more likely focused on computer hacking. Imagine the chaos if the internet went down.

A lot of countries still do it but in many cases you can do civil instead of military service.

I disagree with forcing people to join the military but would broadly support some kind of compulsory civil/community OR military service. If done properly it could provide really useful life experience to all.

Warfare is so different now - the armed forces are professionalised and have considerable technical expertise. It would make things worse to give them a whole bunch of untrained, overweight, unfit idiots whose only experience of warfare is from playing videogames to try to deal with.

If the government were going to conscript anyone against Russia, it wouldn’t be to send them to fight in Ukraine. They’d conscript cybersecurity professionals and the air traffic controllers and engineers and other highly qualified people whose skills could immediately be put to use in ways that are not obvious to people worrying their husband is going to be sent to war.

It would be my husband, whose skills would help GCHQ enormously. But the only difference in our life would be he’d be WFH on a government laptop in stuff that mattered to a war effort. It’d be his employers who’d feel the effects of having their staff conscripted. The consequences of that in terms of the cost to industry mean that it would very much be a last resort.

But no one will be packing him off to Ukraine to be a pain in the arse that makes things harder for our armed forces.

@FatCatThinCat

Are you sure the public wouldn't agree to it? I think that's true of being conscripted to fight in Ukraine. But if Putin doesn't stop there and starts heading for our door? I know my DH would be at the front of the queue if he thought his home and family were under threat (thankfully they'd never take him).

If things in Ukraine escalated beyond Ukraine, WE ARE ALL DEAD from thermonuclear war.

@Maggiesgirl

Ex forces, who are still on the reserve list have already had a letter about the crisis ( DH hadn't as is now in what will be a protected service) so they would be the first after serving Military.

I dont think conscription would be as it was before. There may be call up of specialists in cyber and wargame people of any gender.

Are you in the UK? My DH is a relatively recent forces leaver and hasn't received any such letter?

Can you imagine if they started with Universities? One wrong pronoun on the training ground and they’d run off crying.
Seriously, although my DH is technically too old for conscription, he’d probably be called up because he’s qualified in bomb disposal and would likely be needed for defence of UK bases, although in reality he’d be the last one there to blow up the runway to stop the enemy landing, as would every other Armourer.
Oh, wait, the RAF no longer has a bomb disposal unit 🙄

Not going to lie….I’m shitting it a bit. I’m still within the window of leaving the army where I can be called back up Which in itself wouldn’t be a problem. Except for the fact that I now have 3 DCs and my exH (their dad) is still a serving soldier.
As much as I loved my job and it was some of the best years of my life, The idea of being forced back into service now I’m a mum is terrifying

It would be a very different war. Cyber attacks can shut down a country, drones and missiles can be aimed from great distances, actual soldier numbers won't need to be sent to different countries huge numbers like in WW2.

The UK isn’t going to be invaded either. That is not how Russia (or China) are tackling us. They’re going to undermine our infrastructure. Fuck over our economy. Make energy extremely expensive. Hack our companies and make it hard to operate/steal their information. China is using aid as a brilliant way to ensure dominant influence around the world (just as we have in the past).

Invading is so unbelievably unlikely, especially given the whole nuclear situation.

Ukraine is a completely different situation. As would any other proxy war they might engage in.

"How would you ensure children did not have both parents conscripted?"
In WW2 the children would be evacuated and not with their parents anyway, unless they already lived in the country. A friend of mine was evacuated onto a Welsh farm, where he lived with an elderly couple from age 4 for a long time. They had never had any children of their own. When he returned to his parents he could no longer speak English, only Welsh.

I've just realised that if there was a war it would probably be fought by people working from home on their laptops!

@ExConstance

I've just realised that if there was a war it would probably be fought by people working from home on their laptops!

Yes.

Honestly, the people who should be worrying about any form of conscription are big cybersecurity consultancy agencies and such like. It’s their staff who’d be diverted on to defence work.

I'll sign up if they'll have me. Better work on my fitness a bit more (podgy over 40)

I'd do better in battle than my male DP

Yes it would work, young women would be signed up as well, I think that would be the major difference.

@FatCatThinCat

I think I've never been so happy to have a severely asthmatic husband and two autistic children.

Yes. I was thinking ki g about this earlier before I even saw this thread. DS is disabled and DH too old.

@Georgeskitchen

Given that trigger warnings are now given at universities in case the likes of Dickens, Shakespeare et al, upset the students, I wouldn't put money on a successful conscript army!!

Traumatised people and mental health issues existed back then too. The very young men affected were shot for cowardice and made an example of

If you want a return to that style of treatment then maybe give your head a wobble

DH is 50 but a senior civil servant. I'm sure he would be diverted to war work as most civil servants would.

People just wouldn't get on board any more. And rightly so!

Yes milton, you’d just expect others to protect you and our country then 🙄
or you’d be one of those snitching on your neighbours, watching them get carted off to extermination camps, who knows, perhaps you could even have their nice house?

Ex forces, who are still on the reserve list have already had a letter about the crisis ( DH hadn't as is now in what will be a protected service) so they would be the first after serving Military

This is utter tosh. No such letters have been sent out. Source - My DH is (very long serving) army who currently looks after reservists as part of his role. A number of joke letters have been mocked up and circulated on social media but a quick read would leave you in no doubt they are not real.

DH works in computing, so probably would be used for a WFH war effort.

Why are people so keen to use social media to create some kind of panic that we might all be conscripted or that army reservists are being called up?

The fact is, this kind of bullshit is exactly the sort of interference that serves the Russian interest. The fake letters and panic that we might be packed off to war probably all originated in the Russian social media manipulation factories in the first place.

War happens from a distance these days, so there is less need for human soldiers. We have drones to drop targeted missiles etc.

So it’s mainly civilian casualties we have to worry about

“Big difference between staying in and playing Xbox all day and running around on an army training ground preparing for war. Of course they were willing to isolate, protected in their own little bubbles”

There’s just no need for generational conflict stoking.