No For Compulsory Military Service

“No For Compulsory Military Service in ****.” That is the name of the campaign I leaded in ***** to end forcing **** males to serve in the military for a period of time right after their graduation. In some countries, such as *** and ****, capable citizens are required by law to serve in the military for a period of time. But in some other countries, like Germany and the United States, serving in the military is optional and is considered a job like any other job with a salary and benefits. In the countries that require citizens to serve in the military, usually militaries don’t give enough salaries to the conscripts and don’t even treat them humanly, because they know that those conscripts will do the military service no matter what as it is required by law, which opens the door for many human rights violations. On the contrary, the militaries of the countries that apply optional military service laws, are committed to humanly treat their men of arms, and to guarantee their rights in order to encourage many citizens to join the military. Some people support the idea of forcing citizens to serve in the military as they think it’s a way to prove the citizens’ patriotism.

On the other hand, many people believe that military service should be optional in order to respect human rights and freedoms. In my opinion, compulsory military service should be ended all over the world for many reasons. First, there are many capable citizens who are pacifists and cannot join the military for spiritual and ideological reasons. Pacifists are those people who believe in peace, and refuse to hold any kind of weapon for any reason. And if someone forced them to do so, it would be a severe abuse for them. Pacifists also believe that there should not be any armies in order to end wars and violence all over the world. So, it’s impossible for them to join any military foundation as they refuse to participate in spreading those wars and violence. I myself am a pacifist and I have many pacifist friends who worked in the same campaign with me to end the compulsory military service in ****. One of those friends is Maikel who was required to serve in the military right after he was graduated. When he knew that he had to serve in the military, he said to me, “I prefer to die than to be forced to join the army.”

Later, he actually tried to commit suicide, because he didn’t want to participate one day in killing or frightening people. As a result, he refused to join the military and he became the first conscientious objector in **** and got arrested and imprisoned for 10 months. There are many other pacifists in many other countries, like Israel, Iran, and North Korea, that either get abused by being forced to serve in the military against their will, or get arrested as a result of refusing to dissent their beliefs and join the military. So, in order to avoid all of these human rights violations, capable citizens should not be required to serve in the military because some of them might be pacifists. In addition to abusing pacifists, compulsory military service hinders the citizens’ futures and careers. Most of the countries that require the capable citizens to serve in the military for specific periods of times, force them to do so right after they finish their education.

That means that no one of those citizens has a chance to start a career or develop and apply his or her education in the real life. All of those citizens have to serve in the military first for a period of time, then they can be allowed to start their careers. And when they go apply for a job, most of them don’t get accepted because they don’t have any experience after graduation, and that is because they wasted their time and years in the military gaining no experience for their career. For example, my older brother was required to join the military just two months after he got his bachelor degree. Before joining the military, he had an amazing job offer in Dubai. But because all males in **** are required to serve in the military after they finish their education, the country doesn’t allow them to travel once they start their senior year in college or in school. So, my brother got banned from travelling till he finished his service in the military. He had to serve in the military for three years because he has a bachelor degree and was assigned as an officer. When he finished his military service, he applied for the same job again and many other jobs in different companies, but he was not accepted in any of them.

The only response he got from all of those companies was, “You don’t have enough experience.” There are millions of people who have the same issue and get their futures ruined because of joining the military. Therefore, military service should be optional in order not to hamper the citizens’ futures and achievements. Many people support the compulsory military service because they think if it became optional, no one would join the military and the military would end up having a majority of mercenaries that may do a military coup and occupy the country. I think that is a totally wrong assumption, because if a military fairly treats its conscripts and gives them enough salaries and benefits, many people will definitely love to join it. And even if many people refused to join the military and the military had to hire many mercenaries, I believe that there is no problem with that. There are many powerful countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, and even the US, that have huge numbers of mercenaries in their militaries and they never had a military coup.

On the other hand, a country like *** that applies the compulsory military service laws, had a military coup before in 1952. Also, forcing citizens to join the military against their will, may affect their loyalty and pertinence to the country and they may be even more dangerous than mercenaries. Therefore I believe that the only way to guarantee citizens’ willingness to join the army, is to humanly treat them and guarantee their rights while serving in the military, and is definitely not to force them to serve in the military. In conclusion, there are many countries that force its citizens to serve in the military for a while. And there are also many other countries that make joining the military optional for everybody. Each situation has its advantages and disadvantages.

Many people think that military service should be mandatory in order to prove citizens’ loyalty to the country and avoid hiring foreign mercenaries. On the other hand, many other people, that I am one of them, believe that military service should be optional to commit to human rights and freedoms as no one should be forced to do anything. Also, the optional military service guarantee that all men of arms will be treated humanely and will make their all efforts to protect their country as they chose to do so by their fully willingness. Therefore, I support the optional military service, and will always say it loudly; “No for compulsory military service.”