What form of military service should we as Nationalists support?
Historically, Nationalists have always been on the side of universal military service. In fact the concepts of "People's War" and "People's Army" have origins in Nationalism, not Communism.
The terms were first used by Prussian strategists like Scharnhorst when they wanted to reorganize the Prussian military in order to defeat Napoleon(after their defeat at Jena in 1806).
I support the concept of universal military service and I believe military service should be considered the greatest honor to any nationalist. My views on this topic are influenced by Plato, Aristotle, Machivaelli, Rousseau*, Scharnhorst, among others.
I agree with Machiavelli and Rousseau* that military service should also be a school to promote nationalist pride and the study of national traditions. Ironically, we have a good example of this in the Israeli military, where instruction in Jewish traditions is mandatory and even courses in Hewbrew are offered for Jewish immigrants who don't speak it. I also agree with Machiavelli that military service teaches men how to be good citizens; in that it teaches them virtues such as courage and loyalty, which they need to be good citizens anyways.
You can talk about the specific conditions in your country. I, for example, am firmly opposed to Putin's plans for transforming the Russian military to a professional force. I believe this will only seek to weaken Russia militarily. Yes, the Russian military is in need of reforms, but conscription is not the answer to the problem. If anybody wants, I'll provide some articles that explain this issue from a Russian perspective.
What are other peoples' thoughts?
*By Rousseau, I'm largely refering to his "Considerations for the Government of Poland", and the military system to which he proposed for them(which is largely based on the Swiss model).
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