Finalised story for my article

What is Mandatory Military Service?

Mandatory Military Service is where at the beginning of your adult life (18), you are sent through the mail details about joining the military from which you have been chosen by the government. This is not currently in the UK but happens in places like Lithuania and Norway currently.

Once you receive the letter, you will be called to a place where you will health checked and then enlisted in the military 9 months if you pass the health check.


Places like Lithuania, sent out letters to over 33,000 men last year to which only 8% turned up for their health check.

Why is Mandatory Military Service bad?

Why should the UK not take part?

Mandatory Military Service is bad because it puts people in a situation where they are made to do something they don’t want to. This is barbaric and in a society of what we have today, should be common sense that this sort of thing isn’t happening.

It makes the person called to join the military to drop everything they are currently doing for 9 months of their lives, big issues with this are things such as:

- Loss of job
- Leaving family & friends
- Forcing someone to do something they may not want to do

Patriotism and fighting for your country debunked

It’s arguable that not taking part in mandatory military service is un-patriotic and that you don’t love your country but I can debunk these feelings and thoughts with a few simple bullet points:

Working a job which benefits to society and its people is helping your country

Not everyone wants to or is built to fight- If people enrolling into the military are short, you should be reaching out to people in high school/college via open events and not force people

Producing food or manufacturing products is a service to your country as you provide for it amongst others.

Overall conclusion

My overall conclusion to this current issue that is being discussed is that the UK should definitely not reinstate a form of mandatory military service as in the modern day and age it has no place. It is also completely unfair to those who do not wish to fight.

If the military became in dire need of participants, places like high schools and colleges should be reached out to, to advertise and potentially recruit people for the military. NOT forced people into it for 9 months.

In a worse case scenario, the UK should adopt a form of mandatory military service that Norway does which is a lot weaker. (last year 63,841 men and women were called, only 9265 were taken on board.) This should ONLY be done if the resources are there- Weaponry, etc.