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Agreed, the Royals generally set a decent example with regards to military service. I don't doubt that if we had national service, there would be plenty of questionable exemptions.

Devil's always in the details, and certainly this has been an issue with mandatory service in the past. One of the biggest complaints about the draft in the US was the ease by which some people could get deferments. For what it's worth, Sunak claims that any exemptions will be "limited" and...

Most compulsory service models make allowances for non-military employment of some kind, often in the medical system. The proposed British system would permit 18-year-olds to select some other form of community service based employment; I believe the National Health Service was mentioned as a...

In this case, Sunak's campaign plank is "Citizenship Guarantees Service."

There were a few different programs running in 1987. SYEP was still on the books, as was SSEP, and something called "Co-op University" (I don't know anything about that last one). YTEP was still around, and there was also a civilian employee program called CTEP. Regarding SYEP Challenge, there...

Usually, conscript militaries have this built into the mobilization plan. A common arrangement is to put soldiers who have completed their active service into something like the Supplemental Reserves for at least five years. They don't normally train, but upon mobilization, they are legally...

I think you have that correct; among some other entry plans, there used to be a Student Summer Employment Program run by the CAF. I'm not sure of the start/end timelines but it was running in the 70s and into the 80s.

I don't think they have thought it through even half that far, and I would question how much military advice went into the announcement. This depends on what you want to do with your national servicemen; as I've noted above, I don't think they have an actual strategy in mind. Without a larger...

It won't lead anywhere. Egypt has no interest in raising tensions with Israel. A small - and probably accidental - clash between border guards is nothing in the context of Arab-Israeli conflict.

Desperately grasping at any straw that might change things.

Sunak has chosen to make national service into an election issue. He appears to be doomed regardless of his platform, but reading this reminded of Sir Humphrey Appleby: '"Controversial" only means "this will lose you votes". "Courageous" means "this will lose you the election"!'...

Perun's video today did a good job of describing corruption charges in the Russian Army by equating them to a personnel management tool. Want to get rid of a guy who is popular with other generals, or with the troops? Charge him with corruption, because it is almost certainly true.

I think you have made an important distinction here - it's one thing to get a CMBG into the field. It's quite another to keep it viable (never mind growing) once it starts taking casualties.

LOL. If the Army appears the victim, it's probably safe to assume that the Army is somehow responsible for its own misfortune.

I am going to respond to you using only quotes from William Tecumseh Sherman. For some reason, it seems appropriate. War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. Already we find ourselves drifting toward new issues, and are beginning to forget the strong facts of the beginning. You are...

It's certainly one of the most likely solutions. With the Russians it's always hard to know what is going on behind closed doors.

I would be careful trying to read too much into Russian officers being arrested for corruption. First, there is a good chance that those allegations are true. But it's also true that the government has demonstrated a willingness to tolerate (or indeed, to benefit from) open corruption. The...

I was joking; I don't think Konstantin Samoilov is. I haven't watched all of the videos, but when he is referring to "the KGB," I don't think he necessarily means the KGB/FSB as an organization. Rather, I think he is translating siloviki into English for his audience. This is a term that refers...

Except that in 1967, the Israelis had no intention of fighting the Jordanians. They even sent a message through the UN that they would take no action towards Jordan if they stayed out of the fighting. The Jordanians had other ideas and chose to fight, opening hostilities by shelling west...