@ISIDEWITHQuestionsForeign policyStarted 9yrs agoActive 5mos ago

Should every 18 year old citizen be required to provide at least one year of military service?

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Answer Overview

Response rates from 22.6k Athinon voters.

71%
Yes
29%
No
64%
Yes
24%
No
3%
Yes, but with less focus on military training and more focus on education and skill development
6%
No, service should be a choice instead of an obligation
3%
Yes, but only for those who do not pursue further education or employment
1%
Yes, and it should be at least two years of service
0%
Yes, but only for those who are starting to build a criminal record

Historical Support

Trend of support over time for each answer from 22.6k Athinon voters.

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Other Popular Answers

Unique answers from Athinon voters whose views went beyond the provided options.

 @9HRGGP4answered…12mos12MO

While I would rather it be a choice, Greece has too small population for this. At least, it should start from nine months instead of one year.

 @9BWD6BYanswered…2yrs2Y

Military service would be more effective if broken down in smaller time spans for the years one is eligible to be called to the military. In addition, a focus on skill development is needed.

 @97V3FDJanswered…2yrs2Y

Yes, if they are physically able to do so

 @93XR69Nanswered…2yrs2Y

Yes and we should focus on getting better military training to everyone.

 @8SFTM9Manswered…4yrs4Y

No, but lowered to three to two months of pure military training in order to to better utilize the time and not burden the men for too long

Latest News

Stay up-to-date on the most recent “Mandatory Military Service” news articles, updated frequently.

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…9mos9MO

Germany considers revival of compulsory national military service

Germany has unveiled the most sweeping military reforms since the cold war, including the possible revival of national service, as part of efforts to better prepare its armed forces to defend Nato territory.Speaking in Berlin on Thursday on the military alliance’s 75th anniversary, defence minister Boris Pistorius said he had signed an order to reorganise the German military from top to bottom.“It is a landmark reform . . . Our goal is to restructure the Bundeswehr in such a way that it is best positioned in the event of defence, in the event of war,” said Pistorius. “Nobody should have the idea of attacking Nato territory — this is what we [want to] convey.”The measures are part of a huge shift in Germany’s attitude towards its armed forces, reflecting what Chancellor Olaf Scholz said was a Zeitenwende or turning point in security policy after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.A single operational command will take charge of four new component forces, with cyber warfare raised to an equal footing alongside land, air and sea operations.Military officials drawing up the plans have been given six months to implement them. A key demand from the ministry is that the Bundeswehr will be made ready for compulsory national service in Germany, Pistorius said, should a decision be taken to reintroduce it. The country stopped its mandatory military service — as well as the option to serve in non-military institutions — in 2011.A defence ministry proposal on a model of national service for young adults will be put before German politicians in the coming weeks, he added.

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…6mos6MO

Taiwan ‘learning from Ukraine’ to prepare for attack

Taipei is studying the tactics being employed by the Ukrainian military against Russia in its preparations for a potential attack, the self-governing island’s new vice president, Hsiao Bi-khim, has said.Her comments come as Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has been voicing concerns that Beijing, which sees Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory, has allegedly outlined the island’s “annexation and the elimination of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the great rejuvenating cause of its people,” suggesting that the mainland would stop at nothing to take control of the island.Speaking at an event hosted by Chatham House, a British think-tank, in London on Tuesday, Bi-khim insisted that Taiwan must reform and decentralize its military command structure, adding that the government is actively “learning from Ukraine’s defense, where smaller combat forces have proven nimble and adaptable.”The vice president, who was elected last month, further claimed that “authoritarian regimes” were seeking to “influence and destabilize other nations through hybrid operations such as political warfare, cyber-intrusion, economic coercion and the threat of military force.”In light of this supposed threat, Bi-khim stated that the Taiwanese government has already taken a number of steps to boost its ability to react in the event of an attack. These include the doubling of the island’s defense budget, extending mandatory military service from four months to a year, the prioritization of new arms acquisitions, and other measures, some of which have been inspired by Ukraine, she said.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1mo1MO

No One’s Safe: Trump’s ‘Border Czar’ Homan Promises Sweeping Deportation Operation

TOM COTTON is slated to be the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, putting “I think mass deportation is just talk, but the era of open borders will be over,” Scott McConnell, a co-founder of The American Conservative, wrote on X. In July a Mexican-born Trump backer told The Times, “Last time, he didn’t even finish the wall. What’s he going to do this time?”Now the answer is taking shape: He’s going to oversee a militarized mass roundup of the undocumented. On Sunday, Trump named Tom Homan, his former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as “border czar.”In a speech to this year’s National Conservatism Conference, Homan, who oversaw Trump’s family separation policy, promised a “historic deportation operation” from which no undocumented immigrant would be safe. “No one’s off the table in the next administration,” he said. “If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.”Then, on Monday, Trump named the obsessively anti-immigrant Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff. Miller’s portfolio, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported in The Times, “is expected to be vast and to far exceed what the eventual title will convey.” Miller has been forthright about his desire to purge immigrants here illegally, as well as many here legally, from the United States.Among other things, Miller has said that Trump would cancel the temporary protected status of thousands of Afghans who fled here after the Taliban’s takeover and take another stab at ending DACA, the program that protects from deportation some immigrants brought to the United States as children.Most significantly, he’s laid out plans to use National Guard troops to help arrest migrants en masse, warehousing them in military camps while they await deportation. No one should be shocked when this happens. I suspect some will be anyway.

▲  2811 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1mo1MO

A New Era for Crypto? Trump’s Transition Team Considers Robinhood Exec for SEC Chair

Trump transition team officials are considering retail brokerage Robinhood's top lawyer, as well as bank regulators and corporate attorneys, for a short list of key financial agency heads they expect to present to the president-elect soon, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter.Among those being considered for chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission is Dan Gallagher, a Republican SEC commissioner from 2011 to 2015 who is currently chief legal and compliance officer at Robinhood, the people said.Gallagher, who is a popular pick among cryptocurrency executives who donated millions of dollars to Donald Trump's Republican campaign, is the front-runner at this point, although the discussions are fluid, two of the people said.Also in the mix for SEC chair is Paul Atkins, another former Republican SEC commissioner and CEO of consultancy Patomak Global Partners. Atkins served on Trump's transition team in 2016, when he was also a contender for the SEC chair role, Reuters reported at the time.Robert Stebbins, a partner at law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher who served as SEC general counsel during Trump's first administration, is also being discussed for the SEC short list.Trump transition team officials are compiling a short list of a handful of individuals for each financial agency which they will present to Trump, said two of the people. The process could take a few weeks, and it was still too early to say who would ultimately win the top jobs, the people said.Gallagher and Atkins did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Stebbins declined to comment.In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, Trump's national press secretary, said: "President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon. Those decisions will be announced when they are made."Trump's campaign courted crypto industry cash with promises to promote bitcoin and overhaul the SEC, whose Democratic chair, Gary Gensler, has cracked down hard on the industry, saying it has flouted SEC rules. Crypto companies have been pushing for an SEC chair who will quickly end his crackdown and tear up other unfriendly policies,.

▲  78 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1mo1MO

First Lady Feud: Melania Declines Biden Meet-Up Over Privacy Invasion

Melania Trump declined an offer to head to the White House Wednesday and meet with Jill Biden, citing the Biden administration’s raid on Mar-a-Lago as part of the federal government’s investigation into classified documents.“She ain’t going,” a source familiar with Melania’s decision told The Post. “Jill Biden’s husband authorized the FBI snooping through her underwear drawer. The Bidens are disgusting,” the source said.“Jill Biden isn’t someone Melania needs to meet,” the source added.Melania’s husband, President-elect Donald Trump, will sit with President Biden in the Oval Office Wednesday for a traditional post-election meeting.Typically, the first lady hosts her successor for tea in the White House.Melania visited the White House following her husband’s 2016 election win and received a tour from then- first lady Michelle Obama.After Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020, he failed to invite the Bidens to the White House before the Democrat officially assumed office, breaking the decades-old tradition, according to reports at the time.The Post has reached out to the Trump campaign and the White House about Melania’s decision to skip the meeting.The FBI raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022 in its probe of the 45th president’s withholding of classified White House documents.Melania, 54, has previously voiced her displeasure over the raid at their Palm Beach, Florida, mansion.“Yeah, it made me angry,” she said on “Fox & Friends” in a September interview, calling it an “invasion of privacy.” FBI agents scoured Melania’s wardrobe, combed through her 78-year-old husband’s office and even reportedly searched one of her son Barron’s rooms.

▲  229 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…5 days5D

Defense Bill Blocks Transgender Care To Minors

The Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a defense policy bill directing $895 billion toward the Pentagon and other military activities, moving over the objections of some Democrats who opposed a provision added late in the negotiations that would deny coverage for transgender health procedures for minors.The 85-to-14 vote, coming a week after a divided House passed the same measure, cleared the bill for President Biden’s signature.Most Republicans and many Democrats supported the measure, which provides a 14.5 percent pay raise to junior enlisted service members and a 4.5 percent pay raise for all other service members. It also expands access to meal assistance, housing and child care programs that benefit those in uniform.But several Democrats withheld their backing in protest of a provision preventing TRICARE, the military’s health care plan for service members, from covering “medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” for children under 18.The language, which would affect the gender-transitioning children of service members, was recently added to the measure at the insistence of Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, who refused to bring a defense bill to the House floor without it, according to aides familiar with the negotiations.Twenty-one Democrats, led by Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, proposed an amendment to strip the provision from the bill, but the matter was never brought to a vote. Several of them took to the floor on Tuesday to lodge their objections.“It’s flat-out wrong to put this provision in this bill and take away a service member’s freedom to make that decision for their families,” Ms. Baldwin said, estimating that the provision could negatively affect as many as 6,000 to 7,000 military families.

▲  199 replies2 agree