NurEinMensch

I sense some misunderstanding here.

I strongly believe conscription (or national service or whatever you want to call it) is a good thing, and seeing it dropped doesn't exactly make me happy. There are many reasons why I think so, one being the history of the German military, as described by TylerDurdan in his post. The Bundeswehr was created and evolved around the concept of the "Citizen in uniform" and "Innere Führung" and relies, yes relies on conscripts. Unlike a professional-only military the Bundeswehr is very connected to the general public. It's not a "state within the state" nor an unknown factor acting beyond the life of the average german. Since almost every family has or had some of its members serving there is a good flow of information to the public, whatever bad might happen within the Bundeswehr gets rapidly known to everyone. At the same time the general public more easily understands the needs of the military, as they often have access to first hand knowledge. Maybe even more important is the flow of information from the people into the Bundeswehr, via the conscripts. Every new generation of conscripts heavily influence the Bundeswehr itself. So the "dust" gets often blown away and that makes the Bundeswehr open to new ideas. As concripts are doing their job on every level from the average grunt to working in the highest staffs they bring a "new wind" into every corner of the military and help prevent the Bundeswehr from getting stuck in old routines and being too self-centered. The only argument from the "a professional army is better" side I buy is the "it steals people's lifetime" argument. Indeed they could probably use the few month to learn something, get a job or doing something else that is more productive. But I rather think of that as an investment into security. I know, Europe or Germany haveing to face a major war that requires us to use our reserves is pretty unlikely, today. But we're not just planning for today, but the future, and in case we suddenly need reserves the only way to have enough is to have had conscripts who now form that reserve. In my opinion that weights enough to justify a few month of mandatory military service. Many people assume getting rid off the conscripts automatically saves money. But many analysts disagree, as a good part of the reservists (them being relatively cheap because of low payment) would have to be replaced by professionals, who would get a "professional" payment. Looking at the difficulties other professional armies have at getting people to sign up there would probably have to be some kind of boost in the payment in general, plus money spent for PR etc. Also the costs of the reform itself have to be taken into account. That together nullifies the "cost" argument. Also the military in general tends to attract a "certain" kind of people, who we don't really want to be flooding into it. Conscription helps ensure a broad field of political/etc. opinions is represented withing the Bundeswehr, makeing it a mirror of the opinions of the general public. Another argument I often hear is the "conscripts are unmotivated", thus doing a bad job. And indeed at first glance, taking into account all the anecdotes the conscripts must be a bunch of mostly drunk people who spend their day doing - nothing. That, of course, is entirely not true. From my experience conscripts are about as motivated as the other soldiers, sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more. It's simply that, there are good ones and bad ones. Most of the conscripts are actually more or less voluntarily in the Bundeswehr. Because if they seriously wouldn't want to be there, they could just use one of the many well known ways to avoid service in the military, or service at all. The vast majority doesn't regret their choice afterwards. Conscripts who volunteer for that are already at almost every spot worldwide, where the Bundeswehr has troops, and although I haven't been on a mission somewhere myself (yet?) from what I hear they do as good as the "professionals". Making the Bundeswehr smaller by getting rid off that conscripts will not really help the "Bundeswehr being overstretched" argument. The transformation of the Bundeswehr from a military that was created to stop/slow down a massive Warpac invasion into central Europe, to a military that is acting world wide as peace keeper/enforcer is a really huge reform, but in fact has little to do with the soldiers being all professionals or mixed with conscripts. The first and foremost mission of the Bundeswehr is the defense of Germany and its allies. An army that includes conscripts is best at that.

To get back on topic: Welcome back Balschoiw!

So much misinformation... Â If you really want to learn about that a good start would be here: Shooting Holes in Wounding Theories: The Mechanics of Terminal Ballistics

What does this have to do with the double majority system being good or bad?

Constitution talks collapse What a sad day and what a shame.

Stealth is overrated. My two cents.

Parliament's budgetary powers under renewed attack Having a say over the budget is one of the traditional roles of a parliament. But since this is one of the few issues where the big countries actually agree I think the EU parliament will not get that power. Constitution success hangs on vote weighting issue This is one of the key issues of the whole constitution, and the current draft of the constitution has a rather fair and practical solution. Going back to the Nice Treaty system would be not only unfair in regards to voting weight, it would also make decision making more difficult.

Interesting debate, keep it coming.

The aliens will come to steal our oil! It's the oil guys! It's ALL about the oil!

Germany and France should not be treated different than Portugal and it's stupid at this time when unity is needed more than ever to try to be special and get away with a big debt. On the other hand I'm no expert and those who call themselves experts disagree on what we need, invest money to get the economy kickstarted (and creating more debt) or save money. The Euro is not exactly weak currently, more liks it's too strong. I don't really know what'd be better for Europe Anyways that should be decided in Brussels and France and Germany should comply. By the way the Netherlands could very well be the next to have a huge deficit: euobserver.com - Dutch set for a taste of their own medicine

Good point but I think the peace between the nations of the EU is far less superficial than the peace in Yuguslavia was. Conflicts there broke out as soon as the one uniting figure, Tito, died. The EU is not united by one popular person but a very complex network of economical and other factors and ideas. And the idea of a united Europe is anything but new. It probably arose from the sherds of the West-Roman empire. That's a pretty powerfull dream and we're closer than ever to making it come true.

My thoughts exactly.

Bet you didn't say that when the majority in NATO voted for the wat in Iraq but france or Germany, or Russia used a veto so they couldn't go. Yes, i was against the war. 1. NATO didn't vote about the war in Iraq, it voted about sending (air defence) support to turkey in case Iraq may chose to retaliate. 2. NATO is a defensive alliance, the EU is a political union. Apples and Oranges. [rant]We're talking about the creation of a new Union, and sometimes it appears to me certain countries are part of it for the sole purpose of blocking every attempt to unite europe.[/rant]

euobserver.com - Countries that reject Constitution may have to leave the EU I think this is just the next step in the debate over the constitution, after the UK recently announced it may veto the adoption of that document. In the end I think Prodi is right, let the countries who want the constitution for the Union have it, and those who don't want it can stay out of the Union if they chose so. But don't let any nation block the whole thing for the rest of us.

Excellent topic. And excellent statement by you bn880. I voted yes, because I'm very pro EU (surprise surprise), and for the reasons stated by others already. NATO can only win by haveing a strong EU as a member, the synergetic effects are pretty obvious. Let the US bitch every time Europe takes integration a step farther. Maybe the EU-is-teh-sux-faction comes up with an argument?

Great! Sums it all up!!!

In Germany it was "Negerkuss" but that was changed into "Schokokuss". I have yet to find someone who was offended tho. Silly.

channelnewsasia.com: DHL plane hit by missile over Baghdad Obviously someone was p***ed because he didn't get his delivery on schedule. I myself am still waiting for a packet... They hit the right ones this time.

Better stay out of trouble.

I don't really understand the question. What are we talking about? The weapon that is most innovative? Or the weapon that had the most influence on warfare? Or are we talking about the weapon that is/was most widespread? Are we talking about classes of weapons or a specific model?

Why does it always have to become a gun control issue whenever something happens that includes a gun? I've never see someone raise the knife controle question, or the car controle, or alcohol question or... I haven't read all the new, but did he even own the gun legally? He would have got one if he really wanted to anyways, legal or illegal.

Every once in a while a powerfull man from the east attacks. And since people like to build high buildings it's only logical to assume that during such an attack some towers will fall, either literally or metaphorically.

The TIE-Fighter in-flight music wasn't redone music from the movies as far as I know, although it maybe borrowed a theme or two from there. Most of it was new. If you really want me to I'll search for the name of the guy who composed it.

I can't believe I missed this thread! My favourite music is from the old Lucas Arts title "TIE-Fighter", I really loved the dynamic in-flight midi music. In fact I even bought a wavetable soundcard just for that because fm-synth sucks. Oh those were the days, just by listening to the changing themes I knew exactly what was going on during the mission. Great stuff, later titles like X-Wing Alliance never could compete with that music.