This question was inspired by a post on lemmy.zip about lowering the minimum age to purchase firearms in the US, and a lot of commeters brought up military service and training as a benchmark to normal civilians, and how if guns would be prevalent, then firearm training should be more common.
For reference, I live in the USA, where the minimum age to join the military is 18, but joining is, for the most part, optional. I also know some friends that have gone through the military, mostly for college benefits, and it has really messed them up. However, I have also met some friends from south korea, where I understand military service is mandatory before starting a more normal career. From what I’ve heard, military service was treated more as a trade school, because they were never deployed, in comparison to American troops.
I just wanted to know what the broader Lemmy community thought about mandatory military service is, especially from viewpoints outside the US.
The stuff we’re finding out about modern war is that it’s all brain damage. If you’re regularly firing rounds of any kind then you’re damaging your brain. In a normal training environment it’s not really noticeable. But when you start going through entire cargo trucks of shells, bullets, or missiles on a daily basis then real damage is happening. There isn’t anything you can do to mitigate it and still fight a war.
With this new understanding of what’s happening in war zones our society needs to have a really big conversation on just when it’s okay to put any soldiers into combat.