[Defeated] Ban on Forced Service

[Herten]

Why the hell do you guys want forced labour

To protect our glorious revolution from the next one.

[Askrieg]

"As for your arguments... offer voluntary training courses. None of what you described is exclusive to conscription. Does a nation need to force into service its citizens for the sake of 'preparing' them? If you find it absolutely necessary, instil obligatory training courses for citizens that have concluded General Education - or... I suppose one could call it High School? - so as to prepare them in the use of weaponry and on the ways of war. Obligatory service, however, is needless for the benefits you have described."

Dr. Daendels rises to speak,

"Minister, it is exclusive to conscription. Offering voluntary training courses, without obligatory clauses will only attract citizens that considers military service as a career rather than a duty for national defense. We argue that such cases breeds servicemen that are prideful, boastful, borderline obsessed with power that considers themselves better than the average citizen. Conscription makes sure none of that happens, how can you be prideful if everyone is a service member?

Furthermore, obligatory training courses after General Education is one half of conscription. Like all education, it needs practical uses to be effective. Obligatory service to complete their "obligatory training courses" is needed. And thus, just described conscription.

Also, my previous points of amendments and alternative mechanisms, while also exceptions regarding nations that has an effective means of conscription is being delivered beautifully by Delegate from Elyreia:

"A luxury not every nation provides, as you correctly stated. All said, I feel the response would be to mandate allowing such provisos and alternatives, rather than outright prohibition on the entire service itself."

They set their hand on the desk before them, "Thus, the Principality will remain in Opposition to this proposed legislation, but would gladly welcome the submission to this House an amendment addressing the concerns noted - lack of alternatives to service outside conscientious or religious objectors, and guarantees of non-discrimination tied to any remedies therein."

Dr. Daendels sits down, and gestures towards his aides to bring him more deep-dish pies.

[Cessarea]

"As for your arguments... offer voluntary training courses. None of what you described is exclusive to conscription. Does a nation need to force into service its citizens for the sake of 'preparing' them? If you find it absolutely necessary, instil obligatory training courses for citizens that have concluded General Education - or... I suppose one could call it High School? - so as to prepare them in the use of weaponry and on the ways of war. Obligatory service, however, is needless for the benefits you have described."

Dr. Daendels rises to speak,

"Minister, it is exclusive to conscription. Offering voluntary training courses, without obligatory clauses will only attract citizens that considers military service as a career rather than a duty for national defense. We argue that such cases breeds servicemen that are prideful, boastful, borderline obsessed with power that considers themselves better than the average citizen. Conscription makes sure none of that happens, how can you be prideful if everyone is a service member?

Furthermore, obligatory training courses after General Education is one half of conscription. Like all education, it needs practical uses to be effective. Obligatory service to complete their "obligatory training courses" is needed. And thus, just described conscription.

"Conscription is not about putting people through training courses and then sending them home, Delegate." Noted the Minister, resting his head upon his hand, supported by one of the hovering chair's arms. "I do not see the point you have tried to make about the insufficiency of obligatory training courses. What would obligatory service provide that obligatory training cannot? The experience of clearing sidewalks and painting walls? That's what conscripted citizens in times of peace do, Delegate. Everything else can be covered by training. Training courses have the benefit of teaching useful skills, rather than appealing to some lofty sense of duty or unity, the effectiveness and relevance of which is unfalsifiable. What you probably wish for is combat experience, which of course returns us to the problem of forcing citizens to commit murder in the name of their country."

The Minister raised his head, forcing himself into a straight posture in the chair, and lowered his hand on top of the armchair, into a lightly-formed fist.

"I believe I have said this before, and I will continue to abide by it: there can be no ethical positive in allowing a State to threaten violence in order to force its citizens to commit violence on its behalf. I am not against citizens raising to the defence of their country - and if you deem it absolutely necessary, sure, train them so they are more effective if they choose to fight for you in the future, but to conscript them in times of peace is needless for that preparation, and to conscript them during war is an ethical nightmare.

I do concede that the proposal in question is not concerned with the nuances that we are discussing, and therefore do not question your decision to vote against it. Cessarea will symbolically keep its vote in its favour, though, given the current state of the vote."

[Second Sovereignty]

"Right... ahead of the, quite soon failure of this at vote, I'd like to make a statement," says Raxes. He then retrieves, and unfolds a copy of a letter, on cheap, but nonetheless scarce, World Assembly printer paper. "I'd like to show you all a communique sent to a number of quite significant international agents."

Let us be straightforward, as your honorable nation deserves; Standing law in the World Assembly unfortunately leaves a significant and dire gap in its proscription on forced labor and slavery; conscription, ‘the draft’, 'national service', or, to strip out convenient euphemisms, military slavery.

It is nothing more than the first step of empires, forcing innocent people into brutal and horrific wars against vulnerable nations they have no quarrel with, and the last resort of tyrants, who will proudly sacrifice every life under their ‘protection’ as living shield so as to ensure the continuation of their reign. It is a tool of the most miserable and brutal states in existence, serving as a method of indoctrination and reinforcement for the daily brutalities within them.

The Sovereignty asks you, if you would, to join us in putting an end to this phase of history, wherein lives are expended as gamepieces by uncaring leaders; wherein marauding empires, self-interested tyrants, and apartheid states, operate with impunity against their peoples.

"That's all, really. While the Sovereign is disappointed at the vast number of Members within this Assembly on the wrong side history, it is willing to accept failure at vote for the time being. I just thought I'd remind you all of the fine company which you hold. And, of course, there is ever, another time. After all, there's only good to come, eventually, of gleefully putting firearms in the hands of people who have just been given the highest incentive to oppose your regimes. Good luck to you all."

[Relikai]

"Without conscription, or national service in some definitions, smaller countries will lack the ability to summon numbers to protect their own sovereignty against the influence of larger nations. It is unfortunate that this bill could even be considered in a thinly-veiled attempt to strip these smaller countries of their own independent decision-making when it comes to their own national security, and a possible attempt for larger nations to assert their influence over the possible victims of this Bill.

"We are glad and relieved that smaller nations can retain the ability to decide for themselves the need for conscription and mandatory service for the defence of their own country against larger predators seeking to undermine them."

[Second Sovereignty]

"Without conscription, or national service in some definitions, smaller countries will lack the ability to summon numbers to protect their own sovereignty against the influence of larger nations. It is unfortunate that this bill could even be considered in a thinly-veiled attempt to strip these smaller countries of their own independent decision-making when it comes to their own national security, and a possible attempt for larger nations to assert their influence over the possible victims of this Bill.

"We are glad and relieved that smaller nations can retain the ability to decide for themselves the need for conscription and mandatory service for the defence of their own country against larger predators seeking to undermine them."

"Do you, simply not read transcripts as a matter of course? Or were you merely sleeping for the entirety of the debate? And the presentation I just gave, for that matter. Not a word you've said is true or coherent in real terms. Please educate yourself on basic realities rather than wartime fiction."

[Relikai]

"Without conscription, or national service in some definitions, smaller countries will lack the ability to summon numbers to protect their own sovereignty against the influence of larger nations. It is unfortunate that this bill could even be considered in a thinly-veiled attempt to strip these smaller countries of their own independent decision-making when it comes to their own national security, and a possible attempt for larger nations to assert their influence over the possible victims of this Bill.

"We are glad and relieved that smaller nations can retain the ability to decide for themselves the need for conscription and mandatory service for the defence of their own country against larger predators seeking to undermine them."

"Do you, simply not read transcripts as a matter of course? Or were you merely sleeping for the entirety of the debate? And the presentation I just gave, for that matter. Not a word you've said is true or coherent in real terms. Please educate yourself on basic realities rather than wartime fiction."

"There are nations who have been invaded and betrayed by the Colonial White Man to the Japanese during the Second War, the Colonial White Man who abandoned their posts and left the locals to die and suffer 4 years of occupation. Therefore the words of the privileged who never had to undergo the pain of foreign occupation would bear little to this policy. Let those who enact this for their own sakes do so, and let the privilege continue to have others die for their sakes."

[Picairn]

"Happy to see this pro-imperialist proposal destroyed at vote by a wide margin.

On a different note, I'll say that the supposedly "higher morale" of volunteer armies has a very minimal effect in war. A well-trained, funded, equipped and led conscript army is virtually no less powerful than a volunteer one."

[Second Sovereignty]

"There are nations who have been invaded and betrayed by the Colonial White Man to the Japanese during the Second War, the Colonial White Man who abandoned their posts and left the locals to die and suffer 4 years of occupation. Therefore the words of the privileged who never had to undergo the pain of foreign occupation would bear little to this policy. Let those who enact this for their own sakes do so, and let the privilege continue to have others die for their sakes."

"Or, in other words, you're a presumptive... delegate, utterly detached from reality and convinced you're saving the world by marching the unwilling to their deaths at gunpoint. Wonderful; I do so love it when tyrants decide to be humanitarians."

[Relikai]

"There are nations who have been invaded and betrayed by the Colonial White Man to the Japanese during the Second War, the Colonial White Man who abandoned their posts and left the locals to die and suffer 4 years of occupation. Therefore the words of the privileged who never had to undergo the pain of foreign occupation would bear little to this policy. Let those who enact this for their own sakes do so, and let the privilege continue to have others die for their sakes."

"Or, in other words, you're a presumptive... delegate, utterly detached from reality and convinced you're saving the world by marching the unwilling to their deaths at gunpoint. Wonderful; I do so love it when tyrants decide to be humanitarians."

"No, we choose to have conscripts trained better than the 'volunteers' of some nations or the thinly veiled 'volunteerism' between military service or jail time. Also we prefer not to have history repeat themselves where a smaller oppressed nation is unable to have soldiers as a deterrence, and consider the words of one who never had to serve or defend their country invalid when it comes to such policymaking."

[Second Sovereignty]

"No, we choose to have conscripts trained better than the 'volunteers' of some nations or the thinly veiled 'volunteerism' between military service or jail time. Also we prefer not to have history repeat themselves where a smaller oppressed nation is unable to have soldiers as a deterrence, and consider the words of one who never had to serve or defend their country invalid when it comes to such policymaking."

"Yes, exactly what I said, I'm so glad we're in agreement, whomever you are. Regardless, the matter is settled for the time being, move on, will you, we all have better things to be doing. Well, more work, anyway. Good day, sir."

[Makko Oko]

"There are nations who have been invaded and betrayed by the Colonial White Man to the Japanese during the Second War, the Colonial White Man who abandoned their posts and left the locals to die and suffer 4 years of occupation. Therefore the words of the privileged who never had to undergo the pain of foreign occupation would bear little to this policy. Let those who enact this for their own sakes do so, and let the privilege continue to have others die for their sakes."

"Or, in other words, you're a presumptive... delegate, utterly detached from reality and convinced you're saving the world by marching the unwilling to their deaths at gunpoint. Wonderful; I do so love it when tyrants decide to be humanitarians."

"His Emperor's Government wishes to remind the delegate of Second Sovereignty that there are different types of militaries. We only mandate peacetime conscription for our Home Guard, which by statute can never exit or perform service outside of the Empire. They will never see war, unless here at home. They are here to protect in cases of national emergency, here to protect our borders and seas, and they also would never be shot in the head unless by a person who illegally obtained a gun but by then, they'd already be a criminal.

Your points are moot at best. We do applaud your efforts to try and secure peace, however distasteful our Emperor may find it."

[Wallenburg]

I just thought I'd remind you all of the fine company which you hold. And, of course, there is ever, another time. After all, there's only good to come, eventually, of gleefully putting firearms in the hands of people who have just been given the highest incentive to oppose your regimes. Good luck to you all."

"Or, in other words, you're a presumptive... delegate, utterly detached from reality and convinced you're saving the world by marching the unwilling to their deaths at gunpoint. Wonderful; I do so love it when tyrants decide to be humanitarians."

"Really, Mister Sotriat, I've seen more compelling argument flow from the pen of my extern. Citing yourself in support of your baseless, hasty, and ideologically bankrupt generalizations ought to have you recalled from your position for such incompetence. That you yet remain in any official capacity demonstrates either incompetence among your colleagues back home or their own sympathies for imperialist apologia. For our part, my office is content that the makeup of this Assembly is sufficiently friendly to those nations without the imperial dominion or fascist eternal war posture to furnish permanent standing armies of militarily superior nature to whatever enemies they may face. Perhaps despite your emancipation from the reality of existentially dangerous and ideologically heinous geopolitical aggressors, some fortresses of democratic spirit and equality under the law yet remain emancipated from those armies of darkness."

Trevanyika locks eyes with the scrapes the back of her fingernail against her teeth, opening a gash in her upper lip in the process. She exits.

[Elyreia]

Also, my previous points of amendments and alternative mechanisms, while also exceptions regarding nations that has an effective means of conscription is being delivered beautifully by Delegate from Elyreia:

"A luxury not every nation provides, as you correctly stated. All said, I feel the response would be to mandate allowing such provisos and alternatives, rather than outright prohibition on the entire service itself."

They set their hand on the desk before them, "Thus, the Principality will remain in Opposition to this proposed legislation, but would gladly welcome the submission to this House an amendment addressing the concerns noted - lack of alternatives to service outside conscientious or religious objectors, and guarantees of non-discrimination tied to any remedies therein."

Dr. Daendels sits down, and gestures towards his aides to bring him more deep-dish pies.

"Thank you, doctor. While the Principality is a very reclusive nation and as such has little in the way of foreign diplomatic experience, it is heartening to see that my cousin did not misplace her faith in me to represent our nation in this august forum.

"Should those who wish to propose a draft in which further alternatives and exceptions to provide them with appropriate consolation desire it, I can give them an in-depth lesson on Elyreian practices in a private setting and assist in authoring such a draft." They maintain some of their elegance, but their discomfort is obvious as their confidence waivers slightly. "Though, I believe I would not much be up to the task for doing so, I always aim to assist where I am able."

[Tinhampton]

"Ban on Forced Service" was defeated 11,134 votes to 2,810. (20.15% support)

[Orcuo]

As someone who has one of the most high ranking militaries across the NS Multiverse… I was apart of that 20 per cent that supported this proposal getting passed. I will not elaborate any further.

[Juansonia]

"Ban on Forced Service" was defeated 11,134 votes to 2,810. (20.15% support)

I didn;t expect that this would hit vote by the time that I came back.