The number of objectors is increasing: people are missing out on community service
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No compulsory military service, but more and more objectors – and no community service as a replacement. A mistake. A comment from Christian Deutschländer.
Munich – It has never been so easy to refuse to use your weapon. Formulate reasons of conscience, personal letter, in the age of AI this takes two minutes, including the walk to the mailbox. This, plus the debate about the current low level of compulsory military service and the tense security situation, are leading to a sharp increase in objectors.
Anyone who insults them across the board as shirkers is doing injustice to at least some people who may have really thought about it and weighed up reasons of conscience. Refusal is also a fundamental right.
Interface instead of vacancy: Community service is systemically relevant
It is all the more serious that politicians are slowly reversing the serious mistake of ending compulsory military service in 2011, but have not developed a viable concept for community service. A substitute service lasting several months in social work, community services and also in ecological projects should become compulsory again. Clinics, care, services such as THW, fire brigade can urgently need helping hands in times of crumbling cohesion.
Yes, especially from laypeople! By the way, this is also part of the resilience of a state and is even more important than some military details. Such a service could be developed from the existing voluntary service or set up from scratch. It would serve the country and society.
Bundeswehr questionnaire: Cosmetics instead of a real social year
The basic law, still a huge deficit, currently only allows this for men. The following applies to young men and women: Community service would not be a waste of time personally, but rather a gain: in terms of experience, an opportunity for career orientation, perhaps also in the social sphere, and a big piece of personal development. The civil debate in politics in Berlin and Munich had clever approaches, for example with the idea of a social year. It’s a shame that it fell asleep.
The entire republic is amazed at the nonsense of sending non-binding Bundeswehr questionnaires to all 18-year-olds, and the Defense Ministry’s art of glossing over the disastrously poor response – unfortunately, the development of a really meaningful community service as a supplement is forgotten. (Christian Germans)