Are you worried about conscription… *trigger warning - discusses risks of war**

[Shushhh]

I don’t know why, but I feel like a huge penny has dropped for me today, on the risks we all face in such uncertain times. I have thought about my nephews, who are 17 and 16. If WW3 happens, they would be at risk of conscription I would imagine, as they turn 18. This has petrified me. They are still babies to me (although I know they are older and wiser than I give them credit for). My husband is a soldier, so I am aware of the risks he faces. Of course I am worried for him too. But I’m just worried for us all. I am worried for our children. Where will they go? Will it be like old war times when they were evacuated? Will my brothers be conscripted? Will females also be put on the front lines? And ultimately, will we survive this.

I know this is scary, and I’m hoping my anxiety (previously diagnosed) is getting the better of me here. But it doesn’t feel like anxiety. It feels like real fear and a real threat.

AIBU?

I don't think we're anywhere near conscription yet, but Trump has no idea what he's doing - it's hard to imagine a more unsuitable leader for the world's most powerful nation - and the situation could get badly out of hand. Personally I suspect that America will find some reason why they've 'won' and withdraw pretty soon. Trump and the others have shown time and time again that they're comfortable lying and making up reality as they go along.

I don't think there will be conscription overtly because it would be extremely difficult to police, but I do think they will bring back National Service and I think it will be across both sexes. This will then generate a more militarised and unified Gen A in a way that we haven't seen for a while.

When the threat of war is over I think this will then be softened like in Germany when you will have the choice to do military or health/childcare.

I think about it all the time

I used to read Goodnight Mister Tom in bed as a kid and then cry myself to sleep

No idea where my anxiety diagnosis has come from 🤷‍♀️

Yanbu op, just hope and pray, and remember just how lucky we are to have been born in the UK.

And don't vote Reform.

No I’m not worried because my children won’t be doing it, if necessary they’ll leave the country.

Im not sure how they’d make it work - I suppose send all the fit and healthy young people, the ones currently keeping the country afloat? Too many would cry off for various reasons, no way are my children going to fight in a war especially one in the ME that is based on a knuckle dragging religion.

Iran are currently hitting the gulf states because they dare not/cannot hit Israel or America.

drones come in a variety of forms and short range are cheapest and easiest. When Ukraine took out the Russian atomic bonnets they drove Lorries into Russia and launched the drones from the Lorries.

the uk has many countries between us and Russia most of which have bloody good air defences. There are even more between us and Iran if there’s even anything left of the Iranian military by the time Trump has finished.

I’m surprised they do it at all in Germany, having had basically next to no military investment until very recently as restitution and reconciliation for ww2

I don’t believe children will be evacuated. Taking children from their parents and housing them with strangers simply wouldn’t happen these days

The pictures from Ukraine are very similar to those from the 2nd World War. I was in Budapest the first few days of that war and the displaced arriving by train from the Donbas could have been the films I saw in the Schindler museum the week before in Krakov. Everyone keeps saying it's all technology. Don't see that in Palestine or Ukraine or Afganistan or Sudan or Syria to name a few modern day conflicts. Wars are still won on the ground and most recognise even the bombing and drone might of USA will not win a war without ground advances. That means people fighting on the ground.

My DS is 16 and they’ve really been given the hard sell at careers fairs etc about a career in the army. He’s quite keen and seriously considering it as an alternative to university. All my protests fall on deaf ears because there is nothing like the misplaced confidence of a sixteen year old trying to avoid a lifetime of debt.

The Ukrainian war has completely changed warfare. We envisioned fighting the USSR on the wide planes of east europe with tanks and millions of men.

Ukraine was trench warfare at the start. Tanks are just mobile artillery and army's are divided into small groups by drones.

Shotguns will be key in knocking out drones. Most war will be machine against machine ie missiles taking out missiles/drones.

Iran doesn't have the ability to invade anyone but their neighbours which they know will lead to us boots on the ground (dragging in other countries against them) they will continue to retaliate until either the us stops or they lose. However, their neighbours are trying to move away from oil production into tourism and attracting wealthy people, they will not stand much more from Iran...who made an error in bombing them. It will be a limited conflict and we will not be involved

Ukraine has press gangs that drag people into vans against their will.

I think anyone with sons near 18 or in their twenties will be concerned.
I've been thinking about this since Russia invaded Ukraine.
France has recently re-introduced a limited form of conscription 25 years after phasing it out... Very uncertain times ahead.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0edw7g7z79o

I would think if they did bring back conscription, which is very unlikely, it'd be for both men and women.

How on Earth would evacuation event work in the 21st century.

First, I think there would be far, far more push back from parents now than there was then.

Second, I think there would be far, far fewer people prepared to take the kids in.

Third, from a safeguarding perspective, how are you going to ensure all of those taking the kids in don’t pose a risk?

Conscription wasn’t needed until 1916 in the first war because there was a ready supply of men to fight voluntarily. I can’t see there being a similar wave of patriotic devour amongst today’s young people, especially for this total shit show.

YANBU
I think it’s doubtful, but the way the world is at the moment, I don’t think anyone can completely rule it out.

As the article says this is entirely voluntary.

so not conscription.
(also 3,000 people really is not a lot)

please ignore this it's not only not a genuine poster - it's russian propaganda

It would be ww4 by the time the paperwork and DBS checks for million of evacuees could be completed.

Plus most of the countryside is full of new build estates and traffic jams now so not exactly a 1940s lifestyle.

No and no

No because DP and DS are both ineligible. DP is profoundly deaf with moderate to severe asthma. Hes a chef so may gets called for that . DS18 is autistic, with reduced vision and several medical conditions. I have a medical condition, but can do other non physical based things. I used to be in scouts so maybe. My brother would be the only one they’d call up. I’ll only worry about it if it happens. I’m not letting this consume me, it’s not my fight and absolutely nothing any of us can do about it. Just living my life and that’s it,

This is not strictly accurate.

you have to do either military service or serve in the emergency services (paramedic type role) or work abroad in a vso type role.

it is also deferrable until you have finished education, and there is a lottery system. Take up is about 75%.

A year's mandatory military service? Or conscription into the army for a semi-permanent period?

They are two very different things. Finland, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland all have a year's mandatory military service. You are then in the reserves and so a week or two training every year or two. These countries have small professional armies.

Conscription into a war time army is a very different thing and for a longer period of time (like Ukraine, Israel etc). Both Ukraine and Israel had mandatory military service over the last few decades so large reserves to call on.

Can't see it happening. The majority of people wouldn't be keen. I did see a survey saying most people would not join up, even if it involved defending our own country. Military have said there is nothing worse trying to train people who do not want to be there, they are a hindrance.

Within my own family, I lost men (as it was then) in action, horrifically it sounds, in WW1. The loss hit family so hard, so much that when WW2 started and, again men, were being drafted, they refused as declared they were conscientious objectors. Nothing happened to them except they took work in factories at home supporting the war effort that way instead.

This is an excellent point - please don't get too panicked.

No one is evacuating your child from you to the countryside or forcing your son into the army at gunpoint in the UK, nor is this likely to happen.

My 17 year old ds2 will be exempt because he has previously attempted suicide. I worry about my 19 year old though.

Please get a map OP and look at it. The UK is very far away from any countries that would launch a drone attack.

WW3 will not happen, because the most powerful nations would lose everything if they fought each other.