Conscription: Difference between revisions
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AKA "The Draft".
Some people who find themselves in armed conflict aren't there by choice. Nations both real and fictional enact campaigns of '''conscription''', forced military service, for a variety of reasons. Maybe they are a small nation overwhelmed by a superior opponent. Maybe a war of attrition has left their forces decimated and badly in need of additional manpower. Maybe making it really easy to opt into alternative non-military service is cheaper and easier (for the government) than hiring hospital orderlies and highway clean-up crews on the open job market.
Another reason for conscription is to (in theory) foster a sense of national pride and solidarity; everyone will have the same experience of serving in the armed forces. Whatever the reason, conscription has a long history in both fiction and the real world.
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== Western Animation ==
* [[Wartime Cartoon
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Conscription was almost the universal method of mustering armies all around the world during the period from [[The French Revolution]] to the end of [[Vietnam War]]. Professional armies have more or less superceded conscription in the industrialized Western world, but many countries still cling to it.
* Small, independent countries such as Israel and Switzerland have a variation on conscription: compulsory service. On coming of age, every citizen serves a period of time in the military, usually a couple of years. After leaving the military, there are periodic refresher trainings, usually once a year. In the event that the country is attacked, they can then call upon ''every single one'' of their citizens over a certain age to defend. There's a reason people don't usually fare well in all-out warfare with either country.<ref>Well, okay, it's also because Switzerland is a natural fortress thanks to the Alps.</ref>
** In Singapore, it is possible for a foreigner to obtain ''citizenship'' by volunteering for the initial two years of military service but subsequently he or she is subject to the same regular call-up as other citizens. The physically unfit are relegated to desk jobs such as the Logistics Divisions, which count as service.
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