I'm just wondering too; how significantly are peoples' attitudes influenced by the patriotic connotations of this issue? If the question had been phrased "how many of you guys would be willing to be conscripted into a job where you would compensated minimally, be forced to put your life on hold for several years, and shot at", would the opinions be different?
To put it bluntly, I don't think that many people rationally consider that side of the question. Largely as a result of the reforms caused by the American defeat in Vietnam, it abandoned the policy of conscription relatively recently. The new "all-volunteer" armed forces therefore benefit greatly from a climate in which it is considered good and just to fight in the name of America, and cowardly and meek to oppose it. In your haste to be patriots, you may have forgotten what it means to evaluate the motives of your own government--they, like any other human enterprise, are not above mistakes, and often, not even above deceit.
If
my government simply told me to go to war, I'd be suspicious. Probably to the point of not reporting to my assigned post, unless they provided a very, very good reason to do so (and I don't find threats of military "justice" too compelling, if there's any way to circumvent it). If they asked me, the same sort of very good explanation would be required for me to enlist. If I were to volunteer, it wouldn't be because of patriotism--I like Canada as much as anyone else; but I don't think that that justifies anything. Joining of my own accord would signal that something very important required my particular skills, and that it would be a
most productive use of my time to do so. This is unlikely, because our (in my opinion, generally well-executed) foreign policy has not dictated a need for conscription for several decades, and will not do so in the forseeable future.
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Originally Posted by Yov
remind me when Israel invaded a country that didn't attack it first again?
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- Osirak (Well, that was an aerial attack, not a strict "invasion".)
- 1956 Suez Crisis (Unless you consider prior border skirmishes involving both Israel and pro-Egyptian militias to be veritable Egyptian attacks on Israel--and that's really stretching it.)
- 1967 Six-Day War (Where Israel attacked Egyptian bomber aircraft on the ground in a pre-emptive strike, followed by conventional ground combat.)
Edit: So I was slow to the "Submit Post" button....