Military Slavery Still Rampant in the world
Conscription = Servitude = Slavery
“It is debasing human dignity to force men to give up their life, or to inflict death against their will, or without conviction as to the justice of their action. The State which thinks itself entitled to force its citizens to go to war will never pay proper regard to the value and happiness of their lives in peace. Moreover, by conscription the militarist spirit of aggressiveness is implanted in the whole male population at the most impressionable age. By training for war men come to consider war as unavoidable and even desirable.”
Anti-Conscription Manifesto 1926 — signed among others by Henri Barbusse, Annie Besant, Martin Buber, Edward Carpenter, Miguel de Unamuno, Georges Duhamel, Albert Einstein, August Forel, M.K. Gandhi, Kurt Hiller, Toyohiko Kagawa, George Lansbury, Paul Löbe, Arthur Ponsonby, Emanuel Rádl, Leonhard Ragaz, Romain Rolland, Bertrand Russell, Rabindranath Tagore, Fritz von Unruh, H.G. Wells
”Conscription subjects individual personalities to militarism. It is a form of servitude. That nations routinely tolerate it, is just one more proof of its debilitating influence.” :
Against Conscription and the Military Training of Youth 1930— signed among others by Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell and Thomas Mann http://www.peace.ca/manifestoagainstconscription.htm
Now before anyone accuses of me of being anti military, I’m not. I appreciate all the sacrifices that our service people make to protect and defend this country and to aid those in need as well. And in general I am usually not vocal at all when it comes to these sort of things. With this country not having any mandatory military service any longer, to be honest I havent even considered the idea that it still occurs in so many other countries and to be perfectly honest wouldnt be writing about it now I dont think, if it werent for the fact my fiancee’s son, JM, is in the midst of now dealing with this antiquated and narrow minded system.
JM is a very clever and hard studying student and has been seriously planning a career in aviation, a pilot, now for the last two years, having enrolled in the RAF cadets program at the UK bases in Akrotiri around 16 months ago I am thinking. He has excelled in it and has had many opportunities through the cadets, and this last year received a scholarship to go to one of the bases in the UK where he had his first solo flight, from take off to landing! How many 16 year olds in this country or any other really can say they have given that much effort to a lifetime carreer? I have to laugh thinking of myself now when I was 16 and not even thinking about the next day, much less what I would do for a living! I admire him very much for his determination and his abilities. Proud of him too! well he is at the end of school now and at a time he should have already been applying to university and seeking financial aid, here these things are done generally at the start of the senior year of high school and the students have a very good idea of what they need as far as finances and the like. Well there in Cyprus when a young man reaches 18 and is out of school he must enroll in a mandatory military service for a certain period of time, officially 25 months according to the web site of the Ministry of Defence. Well there are shorter times of service reported in other various sites and quotes by officials ranging from a few weeks to 16 months, depending on circumstances. Well heres where the confusion starts. Of course like anyone ready to get his life started in his chosen profession, he would love to be able to apply to a few of these schools and begin to sort the financing, but he cant do anything specific as far as setting a date as the Army wont tell him a thing other than he cant get out of service until he is enrolled is their official statement upon each and every inquiry. Well there is a long list of meetings between the army recruiters and JM and Alison, as they began near a year ago just trying to get some idea of a decision and a specific date , Well not only for JM’s sake to get into school or start to work this summer to earn some money for what is going to be a very expensive tuition for this sort of career, but also for Alison and I to have an idea when we can begin to set a date for ourselves to be together too. Its one thing to be separated by this distance but being in limbo of the time we know is coming is just a hard ache to bear. And then there is JM’s anxiety too, heres this fine young man, so very capable of being whatever he wants to be stuck in just the same limbo, not having a clue when he can even start on his journey to what should be an exciting if nervous time in his life. He is waiting for answers too. When they first approached the army to inquire ahead of time to save the wait, they were told to first write a letter to the Minister stating their case and it would be reviewed and a decision would be made, well a month later when thy said it would be, a second visit and numerous calls had them writing yet another letter and restating things a different way, giving the urgency now of Alison leaving the country in very short time. Well another month is passed and still nothing, so Alison is getting perturbed now ( oh these people just dont know how much patience Alison is giving these idiots!) Well then after that its a trip to the main offices in Nicosia for a meeting, and they come back from that with even less an idea only being told the case is being reviewed :( Oh but now they are starting to say he can only be released from service after he’s enrolled! Oh theres universal government brilliance at work there, cant take someone out of the system if they aren’t in it! :o) Well now its seeming that is the official answer each time, well if it can be called an answer, they still have been giving no indication of a time or what length of service he may have to do. Nor can he legally leave the country without being scrutinized like someone trying to hide from the system and they even have it if he does leave the country without proper procedures at his age, he could be arrested on returning and placed into service that very day of coming back! Well of course he wants to go back to visit Cyprus at some point, he was born there and part of his family is there. Well its just a mess all around as Alison of course would find it hard to leave JM there alone, as how would he live and where and just those simple things. Oh there is something seriously wrong when a family cannot plan to make some changes in there life such as to relocate to another country or get an education! Now this is not an attack on Cyprus, I love the country and would be there now if it were possible. Just these bureaucrats are making this a right mess for everyone. Well there are so many people who are just not even paying mind to the service and sneaking out one way or another, some going through the Northern areas to get out, some just leaving on trips and not returning, or planning to return! Well we all want to go through the proper channels to make it right, but just like everywhere the right way is the most difficult and most expensive. No wonder the world is in the state its in.
Well I will put more to this later, my baby is just getting home now from Akrotiri taking JM to cadets so I will meet her at the door and give her a welcome home kiss, ok I know I’m 5000 miles away, but the Internet is one lovely invention! thanks Al Gore! LOL
http://www.mod.gov.cy/mod/mod.nsf/dmlcitizenrights_en/dmlcitizenrights_en?OpenDocument
Oh theres a nice page on the site! Guess that means no rights?!
Oh you have summed everything up Chester I feel about this miserable subject of compulsary National Service to the Cyprus Army , I never knew there was an Anti – conscription Manifesto , oh what great people signed it !
Cyprus is a wondeful country for many reasons , but I have to say they are quite backwards in some areas , oh its such a shame a lot of the clever young men are loosing a couple of precious years doing nothing much at all serving the ‘Cyprus Military” oh I could go on and on about some of the experiences I have had trying to communicate with the Misnstry of Defence ! but as Chester has said they are so narrow minded ….amongst other things which I better not say here …..Anyhow iim not giving up the fight to get a postponement or preferably exemption for JM and will fight to the end to help him get out of it and go to Uni as soon as possible so say some prayers for us , we need them.
I believe I feel the same as you do, G. If a country could not depend upon its citizens in a time of need to voluntarily defend/help, then its time as a nation is over because it would be anything but united.
I was in the last draft lottery in the last days of the Vietnam conflict. My number was “14″, so….
I also honor our brave young folks in any free nation’s military. I guess it’s from reading Heinlein, and esp. Starship Troopers, that I’ve come to think that we here in America should have “enfranchisement”, namely that, in order to vote, one must have served a term of service to the nation.
That wouldn’t mean military service; there are hundreds of ways voluntary service could be utilized, from working in our national parks or working to create affordable housing…the list is endless, actually.
All of our rights would be the same, service or not, but only the right to vote. I think our country would be run much better if the people who cared were the ones who made the decisions (i.e., voting for our reps.)
The draft has been a hot topic for a couple of years in my political forum. No one has written anything to convince me we need one.
I was in college in ’74 and decided I really didn’t want to go back and contacted a Marine recruiter. I did everything but take the oath, was going to go into Officer’s Training. (yikes)
A friend of a guy in my unit would come over and visit him; they’d play a running game of Risk that would last for weeks sometimes. Funny thing, this guy was anything but military, a big ol’ boy, a hippy wannabe.
Which was funnier still because his dad was a Marine lifer, a colonel who was just about to retire after being in for 25 yrs. His son told him about me fixin’ to join the Marines and the next day he told me “Dad is coming down to visit and he wants to meet you.”
I figured he’d tell me he was proud of me for selecting his service and all of that, but instead he shook my hand, took me aside and cautioned me against joining, esp. at that point in time.
His reasoning was, the main reason at least, was that the Marines were still full of draftees and the Corps was a mess, rampant drug use and racial tension. He explained to me how he thought it would be better in the future, but it’d take a couple of years, plus it depended upon which political party was in power.
I’ve regretted NOT joining the Marines, but I feel deep-down that the Col. was correct.
Back to the draft: I know that whether I was drafted or had enlisted, I certainly wouldn’t want to have to stake my life on someone who certainly didn’t want to be there and resented it.
If my country truly needed me and would take such an old fart, I’d join up, help out the best I could.
I wouldn’t have the audacity to comment on Cyprus because I’m a (little l) libertarian with my Texas nature of minding my own “bidness”. I also wouldn’t comment because I know very little about the country, typical ignorant American who thinks the world revolves around the good ol’ US of A.
I did spend an hour the other day in my GoogleEarth app., looking around the lovely countryside. (I spent today looking at where my pal Annie from NZ lives) Got to do a post in ToTG about all of this, I think.