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

[Lardychops]

Ive been thinking about this a lot lately in a thought experiment/abstract way since Ukraine invasion and having lived years ago in Israel where young people do national service from 17 as a matter of course with frequent refreshers- obviously now for them being put to the test .
So, my question is -
In terms of the ‘barbarians at the gates scenario which of your children/neices /nephews /siblings parents would drop everything to defend their country/ city/town/ village and family if they needed to ? And do you think their lifestyle/career path impacts on this?

I have 1DD single mother of 3 - she would have been first in the queue pre kids and if I looked after them she would be first to front line

3x DS - all tradesmen- without hesitation- 1 has a child but a partner - he would be first on the front line after his sister. One of them would be terrified but his pride would make him follow his brothers to protect his family rather than any bigger picture

1xDSD - works in retail -No doubt she would pick up arms and fight to the death.

1xDSD- left Uni-just got back from travelling - nothing in hospitality- no chance.

I don't believe in war of any sort, I wish we put as much effort and money into peaceful solutions as we do military capabilities.
I brought my children up not to fight so I assume they wouldn't, but the choice would be theirs.
However, I don't expect 'others' to 'defend' us either, I just feel all wars are pointless, wrong and create so much suffering and destruction, mostly for the innocent victims caught up in it all.
I am a great admirer of countries like Switzerland who count themselves as neutral, and countries such as Greenland and Iceland who do not even have an army (although both have American bases and Greenland has Danish military input....not entirely their choice).

A dumb reform mug speaks 😂😂

It doesn't need to be one or the other. I know lots of secluded places in forests etc where me and my family could hide out until the conflict was over and we're more than capable of sourcing food. No way would I or my loved ones get involved in a conflict like this!

This was my reaction exactly

Ah yeah, Jihadists getting hold of nuclear weapons is a different risk altogether, as they are willing to sacrifice themselves and their families. But they would need to get their hands on them first, so as it stands right now, with only states that have at least some notion of self-preservation, having nuclear weapons, we don't need to worry about them.

There's nothing romantic about it but if you look at Ukraine, war very much is still a boots on the ground affair.

There is or has been imagery out there showing some of the up close and nasty stuff from Ukraine, often taken from a drone or drone doing over watch, some from individuals are even carrying body cams.

Maybe understandably you are not going to find much of it in the MSM so the general public increasingly tend to think, incorrectly, that absolutely everything is remote.

It's something that started around the time of GW1 with footage of smart weapons being used on bunkers etc, and little to no footage of the likes of the infantry in action.

It's not romantic and for the actual fighting soldier war still has the potential to be up close and personal.

My kids wouldn't fight for anyone right wing and that's a fact.

I only have 1 DD, she’s only 14, and has type 1 diabetes.. she’d be of no use in the army due to that…
TBH I’d probably jump on a flight to New Zealand where my sister is

So you’d hide out in a forest somewhere in Britain, then come out again when the fighting is over?

What if the UK lost, is now occupied by an agressive invader who takes everything and treats the occupied people as slaves?

Might you then perhaps wish you had in some way helped defend your country?

Absolutely no way would there be a ' boots on the ground' attack on the UK or England..I mean unless Wales or Scotland started something.

There doesn't need to be , drones and missile strikes would destroy us without a problem, and Russia wouldn't want us for ' land'.

I think your question, as daft as it is, is would you be happy for your child to be conscripted to fight a proxy war for Billionaires in a far flung part of world.

You would be mad to say yes to that.

I think some of that comes from the fact the bus the time war broke out there was pretty much no ambiguity, Hitler and the Nazis were clearly the enemy.
I feel that Israel/ Netanyahu's government are very much the eneny, and yet UK military resources are being deployed to defend them, carry out reconnaissance flights etc.
That is why this is a very different situation.
I am disgusted that the UK aren't doing everything in their power to stop Israel, never mind sending my precious kids out to die protecting their maniacal genocidal government.

I notice you keep talking about what your family members have done. Not to be confused with anything you have done...
You sound like you're getting off on the excitement of it all. You need a dose of reality.

No. I was brought up pretty feral so I'm confident I could survive in eg the Forest of Dean and I'm too attached to, you know, being alive to join the fight. Pretty sure I could escape over the channel into Europe as well and I've lived in several European countries and speak the languages adequately. I'm not sufficiently patriotic to stay and fight for England when I could easily move to France/Portugal/Spain/Czech/ Holland

Do you have citizenship in any of those countries? As if not, then you can't easily go live in them.

Off you pop then.

Concise and perfectly put.

No. But I don't mind breaking the rules. How on earth are they going to know?? I work remotely so wouldn't be at all on the government's radar.

I suspect that joining the military might be an option in the near future for some young people. It has provided opportunities for some young people who didn't do well at school. One of my colleagues was worried about his son being injured in Afgahistanbut he's back in the UK working now. As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thought the armed forces would need to be larger due to concerns over the effect of the war in Ukraine might have on Europe.

So you'll live off the grid and never use healthcare or any other public service?

I earn enough to pay privately for healthcare. I doubt private healthcare providers care enough to report paying patients.

I was brought up off grid so not concerned with that aspect!

You might be surprised, not all private healthcare companies will just take unknown patients without ID/health insurance card. Might open them up to legal risk if something goes wrong. Certainly in my country you have to show your health insurance card before you get anywhere with private healthcare and you need to register with the authorities to get that.

The worrying sad thing is that unlike in the 30s/40s there are many pople living here who don't like British people/England. The left push a narrative of being anti British/something to be ashamed of and to be proud of being British makes you 'far right'. I proud of being British and would stick my nect out to protect this country. I wouldn't sit back and expect others to do it. If the shit hit the fan you wouldn't have a choice. You would HAVE to do it unless you had health issues.

Didn't need to do that in NL or Portugal...

I would protect my family above all else including my country.