Talking about volunteering and military service in the same sentence is a contradiction, not to mention that the new generations of young people are reduced in numbers and availability. And that only two out of ten Italians would go to fight.
There is some confusion about the idea of restore a service military Of leveras stated by the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto on November 27: «Theidea is to bring a bill to Parliament (…) I think that if the vision we have of the future is a vision in which there is minor safetya reflection must be made on number of the armed forces, on reserve that we could deploy in case of crisis situations. We have built models – in Italyas in Germanyas in France – in recent years which reduced the number of soldiers. In this new situation all nations, not just European nations, are questioning those models that we built 10-15 years ago and everyone is thinking of increase the number of armed forces».
Crosetto he is undeniably right, but it is difficult to understand from just a few sentences what exactly the project to be built is in terms of legislation, especially because, in the countries close to us, different mechanisms exist: from those who have compulsory military service and those who have a permanent reserve, such as the Swiss. Which sees able-bodied citizens over 50 years of age trained. At the same time, it is unthinkable that fromUnion European a law will quickly arrive that will standardize enlistments for all.
First contradiction: voluntary conscription
What emerges, however, is a first contradiction: talking about voluntary conscription is a oxymoronas the first word indicates compulsory enlistment by age group, the second instead places a character of willingness to join it. Still regarding the draft, Italy should today rebuild completely the mechanisms and procedures necessary for recruitment and training, and this operation would result expensive, long and well not very popular in terms of political support. To give an example: without constant medical visits to candidates, the Defense cannot know the number of people available for enlistment. If there really is a danger ofRussian invasion (a bit of a guess imaginative and still to be verified, especially after a possible end to the conflict with Ukraine, with the Russian forces to be reconstituted), it would be worth increase the number of temporarily idle units we already have.
The unknown of numbers and operational capabilities
The second contradiction concerns precisely the numbers: how many more soldiers do we need them? Or: how many trained citizens would it be better to have basic military operations? Two questions that should be answered with precise numbers dictated by needs that are the result of calculations which however no one has done so far. Then there is the question of capabilities: considering thehigh specialization required today by modern weapon systems, which requires high levels of knowledge and training periods as well as training which must necessarily be continuea firm limited to one year results insufficient. Unless these “temporary” resources are used for security operations on national territory as is the case Roads Safeleaving professional soldiers to build the force in readiness.
With a further problem: up to eighties the number of boys available for the draft was high, the result of the birth rate at the end of the 1960s. Today it is the opposite: young people are few and less and less, our Army is registered oldbut the age of elderly soldiers is not yet that necessary to retire them. So they should find others jobs as in the public administration, which however is rightly hiring young people to modernize itself.
A true trained reserve
THE’unique possibility for Italy it would be to establish, in addition to the draft, a reserve that is available to train with a certain continuity and that can be mobilized in case of emergency. Above all there is then a cultural problem: according to reports from Census published in June of this year, the Italians willing to enlist and fight are just over 15% of the total of those of suitable age. To the same question, the English answered 80% positively. Maybe it’s better to work for the peace and go back to exchanging products with the Russiaregardless of the locations of London, Paris and Brussels.
