Re: [GZG] Troop potential

I wonder whether the use of peacetime conscription changes a country's
culture appreciably? I'm inclined to say it should, but I haven't seen
anything on it.

Of course, in a setting where you have strong transhumanist elements,
you could well see conscription from birth (kind of like genetic
Janissaries), which would probably introduce a whole new dimension of
complexity to the question.

On Sun, Jul 27, 2008 at 9:06 PM,  <Beth.Fulton@csiro.au> wrote:

> 1) Of those smaller nations that John pointed to as punching above
their
> weight all/most have compulsory military service (which Canada and
Australia
> don't*). I don't know whether this conscript troops are being sent to
the
> middle east or not (though my guess would be not), but does the very
fact
> they exist backfill holes at home that 100% volunteer forces would
find it
> difficult to fill. I know that between Iraq, Afghanistan, Timor and
our
> other Pacific postings Australia now has as many troops on rotation as
it
> has had at any point since WWII (recently had the biggest returning
soldier
> march since WWII) and that is stretching the army very tightly.

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