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How is it an "educational tool/investment" when you are removing 18-year-olds from their education or job for several months? And "instill social cohesion" sounds a lot like "brainwashing" to me.

Those arguments don't have anything to do with conscription. You could just as well achieve the same with mandatory education, or mandatory pick-trash-up-in-the-forests.

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>removing 18-year-olds from their education or job for several months?

They're getting education in a different set of skills, and additional life experiences; some of which may actually be transferrable outside the military context.

I don't see the same objection to students deciding to take a gap-year to backpack around Southeast Asia.

I don't claim it's the only way to promote social cohesion. A year of mandatory trash pickup would probably do that too. I don't understand the comment about brainwashing. Any form of public education, including mandatory trash pickup, can have that word thrown around.

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