The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Conscription was an abuse > Comments

Conscription was an abuse : Comments

By Bruce Haigh, published 22/1/2013

The Judicial Inquiry should look at the ethics, effect, equity and justice of conscription. It was an abuse of power and of people.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. All
I was a conscript in 1971/72. The conscription system was immoral, a "lottery for your life". Those who "drew the short straw", based on their birth date, bore all the costs while their compatriots bore none. Even the odds weren't consistent from one draft to the next. The size of the drafts varied according to the Army's/government's demand for "heads" and they kept pulling marbles until they hit the number required. The pay was appalling, an utter insult when one considers the total hours worked. You were paid more if you were married! What a joke! Conscripts who were seriously injured on duty in Australia are ineligible for a Service pension unlike regular soldiers injured in identical circumstances. The basic training, which all recruits underwent, was harsh & brutal. The specific infantry training, which I underwent, was similar but it was held out to us that life would be easier once we were posted to our battalions. That proved not to be the case in "my" battalion, 3RAR, where the C.O. was a tyrannical megalomaniac. The "men" hated him and he blatantly despised us.
Posted by Rattler, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 8:13:22 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
"Undertaking studies or skills training" did not exempt those who "drew the short straw"; it merely enabled them to defer the commencement of their conscription until they had completed their studies. At basic training, there was a conscript in my platoon who was in his late twenties. He was a medical graduate who by that time had married and had two children. That did not exempt him.
Marriage could be an exemption, but only if one was married before the period in which one had to "register".
Posted by Rattler, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 8:52:21 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Conscription is the wrong philosophy, the wrong mentality. A National Service on the other hand would be the most positive move to rescue our society. No-one excempt, all have the same opportunity, rights & responsibility.
Ask any responsible person.
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 9:37:01 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
My birth date came up in the birthday ballot . Deferred for 3 years owing to studies , on completion of studies in 1968 , I was required to attend for interview to see whether I was suitable to be conscripted .

At Townsville recruiting centre , my blood pressure was taken . Doctors doubted that anybody of 23 could have such a reading , unless he had deliberately inflated it .

I had not deliberately inflated it . I was rejected , much to my relief .

The level of hypocrisy in the community at that time was appalling . Persons who were not subject to conscription said they envied me and would have loved to do national service . However , they could not join the regular army , because they were married at 19 , and / or had to help their National Party father around the farm .

Old soldiers said that their army years were the best of their life and conscriptees should be grateful for being given the same opportunity . There was more likelihood of being killed on the roads , than in Vietnam .

We had to fight the commos in Vietnam to prevent them from invading Australia , so we were told . When the war ended and anti - communist Vietnamese sought to come to Australia , those same persons who urged 20 year olds to fight in Vietnam , said that the Vietnamese should stay in their own country .

I do not agree with Bruce Haigh that we need an apology . The air is already thick with apologies to just about everybody about everything , and there should be no more of them . By all means , give proper benefits to those who served in Vietnam , whether conscripts or regular soldiers .
Posted by jaylex, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 9:55:40 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I am fascinated at the opposition of the left to conscription, as the whole purpose of it was to spread the load across the whole community, and not just to have army recruits come mostly come from the underclass, as happens today. As far as I can make out, the left's opposition to war overrides the idea of equality of sacrifice. Again, because the army only contains voluntary recruits, losses in combat areas don't have the media interest that conscripts would have, but they still try. Until nations find another way to settle their differences I am afraid war will always be with us, and the need for an army to defend us. After all, if you have a great shortage of some resource, the usual way to work out the distribution is not the socialist way of rationed equal shares for all, but to have a little war in which the winner takes all and the losers get nothing. To think that this will ever change is a dangerous utopian idea.
Posted by plerdsus, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 10:43:57 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Plerdsus, "Spread the load across the whole community"! Put all the load on those who draw the short straw, you mean; treat 'em like slaves and pay 'em peanuts! Your remark about an "underclass" is a gross and shameful insult. It's clear that you weren't in the Army, certainly not as an infantry conscript.
Conscription enabled a Army on the cheap, at a time when the nation was prosperous, at the expense of the regular soldiers as well as the conscripts. How do you justify that, having not experienced it? Servicemen today are well paid and have decent conditions, as they should have.
Posted by Rattler, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 11:36:05 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy