Tell me what benefits we lost in giving it up.
Belly,
Surely, you're having me on ?

indy if we ever got together no doubt we would get along
But please do not tell me I am the only one to question your love of national service.
And mate do not throw words like your last few and me, like sand in my eyes to blind me to the truth, you have no answer to my question.
Justice if any exist, has little impact from national service.
Here I must resort to using dirty words *progressive* see nothing can convince me we must do things, in any area, just a we always have done them.
Rather than having a magistrate bend the law, giving bond after bond to some one who should be in prison
Why not have three community elected peoples it in judgment and hand it down?
Why not give the local people the right to remove them if they fail the community.
And as part of a reform process yes inflict some form of service to the community on offenders not the military however

you have no answer to my question.
Justice if any exist, has little impact from national service.
Belly,
I beg to differ. National Service has a proven track record of resulting in better, more responsible citizens.
Just look at how society has become intolerant, greedy & uncaring since teenagers became young adults without any discipline in their changing years into adulthood.
Getting rid of National Service got rid of discipline.

Belly, Indi has a point.
National service was not only about training people in case more soldiers were needed in times of conflict, but their primary objective was to introduce discipline at an appropriate stage in the making of a worthwhile human being and his contribution to society at large.
If you want confirmation of the need for discipline, just think of what these morons get up to in their 'gap year'.
The introduction of the 'gap' year, was a license to learn how to get into or cause trouble, from an early age.
Those with a mature approach to their future, found work and never looked back.
The rest just wasted time and life, and learned how to live 'on the dole'.
The problem with today's lot is they have grown up with a sense of entitlement, which is totally undeserving and unjustified.
In the govt's rush to win over people, and their votes, they have, over the years, given in to these petulant and childish people and their demands, and that's the main reason we find ourselves with laws and the execution of those laws, totally useless and unworkable.
I hear govt's spew out the stupid mantra of 'world's best practices'.
What a load of BS!
We barely come up to the world's 'worst' practices.
The first step to fixing our broken justice system, is ignore the soft cock, do-gooders, completely sideline and get rid of the 'greens', and then start removing some of the laws and rules which inhibit discipline and therefore, reason and common sense.
Another factor is get rid of the ministers who try to 'buy' votes by offering to pass laws that do nothing to enhance and benefit people's lives and living standards, without causing grief to the rest.

Gentlemen I beg to differ our last lot of national servicemen sent boys to war.
And sent us back broken men, even now some are still killing them selves and first hand understanding of that.
What you in the end claim national service does is no more than good parents should have done long before sending them to war

The Army teaches self sufficiency- to live out of your pack- it teaches team work and how to follow instructions. It teaches improvisation, resilience, but most of all discipline. It teaches leadership and how to manage an organization.

This is a good foundation for members of our society.

More needs to be done to funnel these productive people into productivity after the army in civilian life. The full life cycle of a citizen from cradle, to youth, to adult, to family, to old age- all of these five stages has a place in society and interact with each part to make society strong and self supporting. Leadership is about supporting this structure. I believe that there needs to be a balance between freedom and discipline- Aristotle had a different view of freedom/ liberty than John Stuart Mill. Freedom is a privilege that is earned. Those societies that are only for pleasure will die- maybe that's what the Socialists want- maybe that's what other groups want too.