The title is not entirely correct. They don’t plant to “introduce” conscription. Germany had conscription from its formation of the Bundeswehr in 1955 until it was put on hiatus in 2011 because people back then thought that Ivan was no longer a problem. So what they think about is not “introducing” but just reactivate it.
The changes will be that while before 2011, conscription was only for men, it is planned to be for both sexes, and military service will no longer the one preferred service (back then, you had to go through quite some hoops if you did not want to serve in the Bundeswehr and do your time in e.g. social services). This time, the military option is just one of several that can be chosen.
At this stage it’s all hot air. Nobody has even started talking about how to finance it and the defense minister isn’t even 100% sure he will get his requested additional funds for the next cycle. When somebody asked him about the topic he replied that he isn’t categorically against it but he would have to finance (and restructure, as the necessary infrastructure for it has been degraded/scrapped) more important topics first.
i don;t like conscription into the military but i’ve always felt some sort of manatory non-military civil or social service or peace corps participation would do a lot for encouraging civic participation in exchange for some sort of universal educational system or some form of reimbursement for secondary education.
In this day and age it feels like a McDonald’s worker could ai copilot a drone better than the folks over in Israel, so no I totally disagree with conscription without certain safeguards in place to prevent genocide or other dumbfuckery.
You have to understand “capitalist” in this case means “I’m in high school and someone looks greedy”.
Like, there’s nuance and then there’s “everyone who is not an anarcho-socialist-utopian-solar-punk-revolutionary is a capitalist”.
And I say this totally not defending capitalism, I’m just smart enough to see a difference between “fisher-price my first socialism” vs reality…
Having a greedy oligarchy isn’t capitalism, it can be just as bad if not worse but the idea things being different is lost on these folks… if you are going to argue that Putin taking everything for himself is just Russia being “capitalist” then you are literally telling the world “I can see lots of trees, but no forest…”
No shit. Doesn’t make them capitalists and it doesn’t make a mob boss the monopoly man. Regardless of “systems” I wouldn’t call China capitalist nor Russia and comparing them to or claiming them as such wouldn’t be accurate or even helpful really.
It’s not helpful in assessing current context or motive. But yea let’s just call em all capitalist…
No communist in America is a communist. They all want to be communist (wannabe communist, like wannabe badasses), but they are not. You are what you eat.
You pretty much had it right the first time. The Falklands would likely be used as a staging area, being the closest British or allied territory to the part of Antarctica in question.
Due to Antarctic treaties, the claim should be effectively inoperative as long as the UK is a member, and Russia shouldn’t be extracting mineral resources as long as Russia is a member.
The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 nations and came into effect in the mid-1960s. The central ideas with full acceptance were the freedom of scientific research in Antarctica and the peaceful use of the continent. There was also a consensus for demilitarization and the maintenance of the status quo. The treaty prohibits nuclear testing, military operations, economic exploitation, and territorial claims in Antarctica. It is monitored through on-site inspections. The only permanent structures allowed are scientific research stations. The original signatory countries hold voting rights on Antarctic governance, with seven of them claiming portions of the continent and the remaining five being non-claimants. Other nations have joined as consultative members by conducting significant research in Antarctica. Non-consultative parties can also adhere to the treaty. In 1991-1992, the treaty was renegotiated by 33 nations, with the main change being the Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection, which prohibited mining and oil exploration for 50 years.[13]
The US should lead a vast effort by the West (broadly construed to include allies like Australia, Japan, etc.) to deploy all covert means and significant overt means, short of a shooting war, to destabilize and ultimately destroy the russian state.
Fuck russia. A million times over, then once more, for good measure, fuck russia.
Macron, Scholz: it is going to be on you to lead if the most fucktarded of my compatriots succeed in their “real men wear diapers” campaign. FFS.
deploy all covert means and significant overt means, short of a shooting war, to destabilize and ultimately destroy the russian state.
While they kind of maybe wanted that, they fear all the nukes getting to worse hands than they already are right now. At least Putin is sane enough to not use them, but more extreme leader might.
Russia is happy with a warmer world. Their land will become more temperate, they’ll get a shipping passage up north. And of course the oligarchy will get richer. Gazprom their state owned and run oil and gas companies is one of Russia’s main economic drivers.
You clearly have Russia confused with somebody else. Russia has some of the biggest natural gas operations on earth, and they’re the largest exporter of oil.
Ah, good question. They haven’t make any statements afaik. If they cooperated in extracting it then they’ll probably sell it like they would with any other commodity, Russia doesn’t really have any claim to the resources or territory even if their people discovered the deposit.
The US will, sooner or later, learn the same lesson all empires learnt before: No matter how mighty you are, some regional power somewhere will be beyond your control.
This assumption is almost universal yet has been disproven time and time again, particularly in the Middle East.
telegraph.co.uk
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