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I went to a school with both a large international program and what seemed like a large ROTC program. Every Thursday ROTC students were required to be in unifor
by jonesb6 11y ago
I went to a school with both a large international program and what seemed like a large ROTC program. Every Thursday ROTC students were required to be in uniform. I always wondered how the international students felt being surrounded by, what must've seemed to them as, soldiers.
I was especially curious about how the Middle Eastern students felt. Then again most were from Saudi Arabia, who has something like the ~3rd largest military expenditure per capita.
We really are a hyper-militarized country if you think about it.
- crucini 11y agoIn many countries everyone, or every male, has to do military service or training. Linus Torvalds, for instance, had to take a year off from college to serve. I remember a Chinese programmer in Silicon Valley complaining that he toted an AK47-like rifle but only got to fire three cartridges during his military service - a cost saving measure.
- jcranmer 11y agoMandatory conscription was developed by revolutionary France, and after being smashed by the French, the Prussians (whose military was arguably the highest quality in Europe) adapted the system into the form generally known today (every adult male has to provide N (usually 1-3) years of mandatory military service). The US never had anything like this system: there was mandatory conscription during the civil war, and the draft (a lottery-based system rather than universally compulsory) was enacted in peacetime in 1940.