If there was a war and conscription was mandatory would you go?

[visitingagain]

Do people think the government has the right to conscript people? Should people who won't comply get punished?

If I believed in the justification I would.

No. War is evil.

@CheeseMmmm

Anthem for Doomed Youth BY WILFRED OWEN What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? — Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Quite.

'Sneak home and pray you'll never know the hell where youth and laughter go.'

By the grace of god go we.

@TheOriginalEmu

No. War is evil.

So is oppression, what is the worse evil? Sometime war is inevitable.

WW2 was an inevitable war. What was the alternative?

Wilfred Owen knew the reality of war. That he died in the last week of WW1 just adds to the poignancy.

@DismantledKing Who mentioned vaccines? Do you know how stupid you sound calling people antivax when the word hasn't even been mentioned?

Yeah I would. I'd feel too guilty sat at home

[quote Lavender24]@DismantledKing Who mentioned vaccines? Do you know how stupid you sound calling people antivax when the word hasn't even been mentioned?[/quote]
What else did you mean?

@Lavender24

I'm quite amused reading these responses because the past two years has shown that most UK citizens will blindly follow what the government tells them to do but also that most are chickenshit and won't stand up for themselves. So what would your average UK. citizen do if their options were oppose the government or go to war?

Can we start a list of the morons?

I've found another one.

@shiningjustforyou No because there's a big difference between people who genuinely believed in masks /lockdown etc and people who went along with it or disobeyed it in secret because they were too scared to stand up for themselves.

[quote Lavender24]@DismantledKing Who mentioned vaccines? Do you know how stupid you sound calling people antivax when the word hasn't even been mentioned?[/quote]
The OP mentioned vaccines.

We have 150k people in armed forces
And 50k in reserves.

11000 currently deployed.

(Just looked it up).

Bil is in reserves. They are trained and ready to be called up.

The nature of war now esp with us on an Island it feels unlikely we will need loads of people to go out and physically engage.

Unless something happens massive. Huge civil war would be one and Europe/ Scandinavia etc suddenly deciding to get expansionist.

Anything from Russia NK USA China would be long distance. And they all have nukes. As do we. 1980s war games (great film!) again.

Wars these days are very very different though, just not at all the same.

Hopefully the fact that dropping nukes renders areas radioactive for ages and so not much use is a deterrent now.

When the USA dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the extent of the long term consequences was not known/ tested/ considered.

Maybe contraversial but imo they were atrocities. Nukes are just off the scale appalling atrocity

WW2 was an inevitable war. What was the alternative?

Because WWI made it inevitable...

Nope. I'd rather get shot for refusing. Just like if a man stopped and told me to get in his car I'd refuse. I'd rather be killed on the spot than suffer.

I’d be excused on medical grounds….guess I could maybe operate a drone or something 🤷‍♀️ I’d do it if it seemed like the right thing to do.

[quote Lavender24]@shiningjustforyou No because there's a big difference between people who genuinely believed in masks /lockdown etc and people who went along with it or disobeyed it in secret because they were too scared to stand up for themselves.[/quote]
Ah, you’re the mask-denialist, aren’t you? The one that won’t have the flu jab. I remember now.

My DD just read a book by paddy ashdown about ww2. She told me and read me parts. Multiple people and groups including in Germany really working to stop Hitler. She told me that Hitler's.. private secretary or something... Was in a group with a load of high up German military who wanted him stopped. They sent a letter secretly to loads of countries including England saying this and that and we need to do the other he is very dangerous war can be averted.

We ignored it.

My mum was an industrial nurse who worked for a chemicals company. At the start of the Gulf War she was told she may be needed to 'help out'. She was rather proud and would have gone if needed. I was devastated and lost sleep for months about her maybe having to go to a war zone. She wasn't needed in the end, and is a very happy retired nurse now.

You knew Jesus? Kudos. I didn't think you were that old.

If anyone is interested-

www.waterstones.com/book/nein/paddy-ashdown/9780008257071

'Some argue that the resistance only started when Germans began to realise that their country was losing the war. In fact civilian opposition to Hitler was active, though ineffective, well before that. The first military plot was put together in 1938 under the leadership of the chief of staff, Ludwig Beck: it was aborted because Britain and France were unwilling to show support while they still hoped to reach an accommodation with the Führer. The first attempt to assassinate Hitler was in 1934. More than 20 followed.'

'In his last days, Adolf Hitler raged in his bunker that he had been betrayed by his own people, defeated from the inside. In part, he was right. By 1945, his armies were being crushed on all fronts, his regime collapsing with many fleeing retribution for their crimes. Yet, even before the war started, there were Germans very high in Hitler’s command committed to bringing about his death and defeat.'

Wtf is this about covid? What?

Oh FFS.

Comparing the situation of men esp in ww1 but everywhere around the world being forced to fight. Often in terrible conditions, seeing their friends and comrades sicken, die. Be killed.

The men and women in both the wars who sacrificed so much often their lives. The resistance, spies, all sorts. The men often v young and boys who lied about their age in the trenches.

Now, around the world. Boys being taken and trained to be child soldiers. (The girls 'wives'). The appalling loss of life and liberty. Syria. Burma. Belarus . And so many other countries. Atrocities, murder, rape.

And this is about COVID?

Jesus Christ get some fucking perspective.

Tell you what OP.

Here's a choice.

Stay here and have a vaccine (which incidentally is not mandated by law and imo won't be here) and wear a mask...

Or. You can take the place of a Uighar woman in China on the radar of the govt, you and your family can take the place of a family in Syria, you can be in Afghanistan where the Taliban are bad but Isis are worse and looking to gain ground.

Fucks sake. What a crass OP.

In a ww2 type scenario where we were at risk of invasion, yes I would do it. I'm a nurse though so would probably be more use in a military hospital rather than fighting.

If conscription was mandatory then there'd be no choice, surely ?