quote:Konania Decides: Sergeants Are Too Nasty, Say New Recruits
The Issue A haggard group of new recruits in Konania's army have spoken out against the brutal conditions experienced in their military training.
The Debate "It's atrocious!" wails Private Bill Steele, from amidst the cacophony of a parade cadence. "We're forced to sleep in crowded barracks, on hard cots, and do the most inhumane exercises when we wake up! Just today I've had to crawl through a muddy minefield, climb a grease-coated wall, and to top it all off, get mangled by an angry drill sergeant! All we want is a little respect from the officers - maybe to sleep in until noon, and not have to get all sweaty and tired doing stupid things like marching and climbing ropes. Oh, and private bedrooms too - we're risking our lives for the country, after all." [Accept]
"THEY WANT WHAT?!" screams Sgt. Burkz, while pressing back a rising vein on her neck. "This is WAR, not DAYCARE! If anything, the training standards should be tougher! If I want to whip some pasty-faced, beer-gutted greenhorn because he can't climb over a razor-wire fence then I should be be given the permission to right away! The cry-babies won't like it, but they can run home back to their rich daddies if that's the way they're having it. War isn't a walk in the park, and training shouldn't be either. For all our sakes." [Accept]
"Training, what a load of old hooey," says renowned spendophobe and radio announcer, Lars Hanover. "The only thing it teaches our soldiers is how to shine boots and fight plastic dummies. We'd be better off if we just dropped them into the fight so they could learn to shoot for themselves. There might be a few accidents, but it'll be worth it for all the Konanian Credits we'll save." [Accept]
"There is another way, you know..." whispers Bianca Licorish, the Chief of Secret Projects and Shiny Things in Konania's military research department. "What if we started taking children and raising them from birth to fight? We'd be able to make them completely immune to propaganda, psychological warfare, and demoralisation. Not only would that stop the crying new recruits, it'd also give us a powerful military edge. People may not like giving up their kids, but that's why we run the country. We know better." [Accept]
I'm currently fighting the urge to choose the last one. But that got me wondering; are there any nations in real life that actually do that? I know there are many that use conscript armies, but I haven't heard of any using Ender's Game type of training... though I saw once on 20/20 (I think?) that East Germany used to take kids and train them athletically, to beat the West in the Olympics...
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Chine still does that for athletics, I'm not aware of any nation that does this for their millitary, at least not when you're talking 6 years old, things like the Hitler youth are old hat though.
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The Boy Scouts were originally intended as preparation for army life, defending the British Empire on the uncivilised frontier.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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The Ottoman Empire did that. They took Christian boys as slaves at age five or so and trained them to be their fighters. Called Janissaries, I believe.
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Yes the Ottomans did that and they were rather good warriors. I'm sure you've all heard of the Spartans. They practically trained from birth to be warriors, note that the Spartans were considered by far to be the superior warriors of their day. Norman knights, considered the most elite warriors in their day, trained from the age of 7 to 14 when they finally became squires. Then they were squires until 21 when they finally became a knight. They also trained in small squads of knights from their younger years on and fought with those men for the rest of their life. I forget the actual name of the groups, but yeah. Most of the amazing militaries in their day had their soldiers trained from a young age on. Its simply not always called combat training. Sports as a whole are not just for entertainment Posts: 1753 | Registered: May 2001
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