singapore conscription drain its own talent pool

After all, sons of wealthy families often studied abroad to try to avoid the call-up, which applied to those aged 18-26, and generations of fathers, uncles and elder brothers have regaled family dinner tables with tales of waste, mismanagement, homesickness and futility.


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Declaring the end of an era, Italy has scrapped conscription to make way for a more professional army, leaving only a legacy of nostalgia, pride and cruel British jokes.

For Italians the army consigned to history yesterday was a source of unity, courage and honour, not laughter. The volunteer force that will take its place, giving women a military role for the first time, makes total sense. But its arrival was tinged with regret.

A young, fractious country born only in 1861, Italy relied on conscription to forge a sense of nationhood by jumbling together southerners and northerners. For generations of Italians who did not even speak the same language, it succeeded.

British schoolboys snigger at Benito Mussolini's incompetent forays into north Africa, and the switch to the Allies as the tide of the second world war changed, but Italians remember their army for other things.

A ragtag, outnumbered force which united the country against the odds was its progenitor. In Alpine valleys it eventually hammered the Austrians and Germans in the first world war, losing 600,000 men in the process. It has been deployed in southern Italy and Sicily to counter terrorism and the mafia.

In peacekeeping and relief operations in Lebanon, Namibia, East Timor and Kurdistan it has earned respect. It has shouldered much of Nato's burden in the Balkans. Not a slick killing machine, but one worthy of pride, reckon most Italians.

Yet the senate voted overwhelmingly to abolish conscription, a procedure started two centuries ago by Napoleon Bonaparte. Over the next seven years the 270,000-strong force will shrink to 190,000 volunteers.

Opposed only by the far-left Refounded Communists, the law is intended to boost the army's aptitude for peace-keeping. As well as short-term savings, an end to conscription means higher salaries, improved training and better equipment.

"While military personnel will be sensibly reduced, the number of troops that we will actually be able to deploy on international missions will increase," said defence minister Sergio Mattarella.

Defence spending is expected to rise 50% in the next few years. Conscription, otherwise known as naja, can be reactivated in times of war or international crisis.

Following similar moves in France and Germany, Italy is to abolish its draft from January 2003; eight of European Union's 17 members now done likewise. Commentators agreed the move was sound but could not help mourning what will be lost.

The force, after all, will change almost beyond recognition. A first generation of female officer cadets have recently signed up after an eight-year campaign by the Association of Aspiring Women Soldiers (Anados). By 2002 women will be able to volunteer for every sector of the armed forces.

Less positively, an elite alpine unit protested that the army's unifying influence would crumble due to the disproportionate number of volunteers expected from the jobless south, lured by the prospect of £635 a month. For a shop assistant on £2-an-hour, that's not bad.

Charities also expressed concern at losing the annual help of around 100,000 conscientious objectors who were allowed to serve their 10-month stint doing voluntary work; grumpy some might have been, but they were like manna from heaven.

The Refounded Communists reiterated the argument, echoed in Germany, that conscripts ensured the army remained linked to the people, thus acting as a bulwark against militarisation and coups.

Yet for males born after 1985, the cut-off date for the new law, such fears are for fuddy duddies. Where those born before may still have to serve their military service as the draft is phased out, they will be the first generation grateful to escape a 10-month sentence of boredom.

After all, sons of wealthy families often studied abroad to try to avoid the call-up, which applied to those aged 18-26, and generations of fathers, uncles and elder brothers have regaled family dinner tables with tales of waste, mismanagement, homesickness and futility.

Few were surprised last month when auditors discovered that the army had stored enough clothing and kit to last for the next 3,000 years. An inspection revealed warehouses bursting with tons of forgotten shoes, boots, underwear, hairbrushes and uniforms, including some for children or extremely small adults. Clearly a spring-clean has been long overdue.

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