Is A Conscripted Army Needed Given The Growing Security Threat From China, Russia, Iran & N Korea?

Imagine if you're a professional soldier who's gone through god knows how many hours, weeks, months of specialist training and a load of tooled up conscripted Dad's Army wankers rock up and ask how they can get stuck in.

More harm than help, they'd just get people killed by doing stupid shit. Just look at the Russian conscripts in Ukraine, they're nothing but target practice for a professional army.
 
BrianW said:
This country is full of 'patriots' who would rush to the recruiting office, clutching their union jacks, if there was any real danger.
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True but I don't think you win wars by pulling on your favourite freshly ironed Stone Island and Adidas and jump up and down shouting "come on then" to the enemy, behind a line of police and security guards.
 
Johnny Mars Bar said:
Imagine if you're a professional soldier who's gone through god knows how many hours, weeks, months of specialist training and a load of tooled up conscripted Dad's Army wankers rock up and ask how they can get stuck in.

More harm than help, they'd just get people killed by doing stupid shit. Just look at the Russian conscripts in Ukraine, they're nothing but target practice for a professional army.
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The Ukranians are mainly conscripts as are the Russians, both the first and second world wars were fought with conscripts.

Dads army wankers? I'll mark you down as a know nowt ehh?
 
Historically the UK has very rarely used conscripted forces. And has been wary of doing so. 1916-1920 and 1939-1960 have been the exceptions rather than rule. Hence, there has normally been a reliance on a small highly trained elite force bolstered by volunteers when there was a military need (Crimea, Boer war, 1914-16) being the conflicts that come to mind. I think the Forces view is that they would rather have people there that want to be there and have the ability to act in the ways they want/need them to act than people who are reluctant or whose fear will cause them to run or freeze. I note that the current radio adverts recruiting for the army play on that sense of looking for people who are prepared to get stuck into a situation rather than find a way out.

I suspect that if we are heading towards a general conflict, the first step is to recruit a part time volunteer force (Territorials) who can be called up if necessary. I doubt that general conscription will be considered until the threat is overwhelming and like in 1916 the pool of willing volunteers is drying up.
 
DiscoSteve said:
Like it or not, war and the threat of it is a good revenue earner and also keeps lots of people in good jobs.

We will also always need boots on the ground, either directly on the front line (to get shot at) or remotely to support those getting shot at. That's nothing new, its just that the percentage of people at risk of a "Game Over" moment is lower (a world-ending event notwithstanding).
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Being a grandfather, I do not like the sound of 'a world ending event'.
Surely it is possible to avoid such a scenario.
I would like my grandchildren to have a future
 
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