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Military Service Reform – Missing the Mark
The government’s handling of the country’s security is scandalous. The ultimate appeal of military service is that you never have to go into combat! By Rainhard Kloucek
First, a commission was allowed to deliberate for a long time, which finally presented proposals with a clear recommendation on what the reform of military and alternative civilian service should look like. Eight months of basic military service followed by two months of exercises. Alternative civilian service should be extended to one year. The eight months make sense because, after a soldier’s basic training, there should also be unit training, which can then be further practiced during later militia exercises. The concept is logical.
More than half a year later, the government has now agreed on a “6 plus 3” model for basic military service; alternative civilian service is not to be extended. Instead, basic-tier conscripts are to receive vacation time and better pay.
The compromise is weak and demonstrates how far the responsible decision-makers are removed from reality. The six months are a consolidation of the unsatisfactory status quo, and the three months of militia exercises are mere window dressing if unit training can no longer take place. This is understandable even to a layman. The security situation in Europe should pull every politician out of their ideological blindness (regardless of their political leaning).
There is only a desire to extend alternative civilian service if too few conscripts sign up for basic military service. In doing so, they are actually admitting that they themselves do not believe in the goal of making military service more attractive, which they constantly proclaim.
The ultimate appeal of military service is that you never have to go into combat!
Military national defense serves to tell all conquest-hungry criminals clearly: don’t even try it, you’ll be biting off more than you can chew. The fact that basic-tier conscripts can also be assigned to shovel mud during a flood is a collateral benefit of military service.
Looking at this weak compromise now, one must assume that politicians are incapable of learning. Apparently, military service is only about maintaining the alternative civilian service, without which entire systems would collapse. Responsible politics looks different!
