Essay about military service

What do you think about the reintroduction of military service :

On the one hand, I think this can be a good thing. Indeed, it instills in the young people values of listening and obedience. In a world where children listen less and less to their parents, are capricious, are glued to their smartphone all day, it can only be beneficial. Moreover, many young people today do not know what profession they want to practice. This can help them, guide them, and sometimes give them a vocation, especially since the French army is short of personnel.

However, it appears that the military service is often inappropriate. Firstly, it possibly promotes nationalism. Many people think that instead of creating cohesion between young French people, it would generate hatred towards foreigners. Moreover, the military service might be a burden to the army. Implementing such a system could require a lot of manpower and infrastructure from the army. That’s why the UK National Service was phased out from 1957 following complaints from the Army that the sheer number of conscripts had become a burden. The reinstatement of military service may also seem inappropriate in terms of its price. While France is facing a major economic crisis, it might be wise to limit public spending. To make military service compulsory for the nearly 800,000 young people, it would cost more than 4 billion euros. Regardless of the benefits of a return to military service, it appears that this is not the right time, given the current crisis.