Should Mandatory millitary service be a policy in every country?

By Advait Nayak
It was a lazy Friday night. I was watching a Korean drama. The main character had just returned from a year of military service. This theme of young men doing a year of military service was common throughout the dramas. It made me wonder how would it affect teenagers like me if our countries adopted such a policy.

Many countries have a year or more of compulsory military service. For example, Korea,Israel and Singapore. This might seem like something that teenagers like you and me would never want to do. However, This practice can be beneficial to the country, increasing their military force and could teach us young teenagers valuable lessons. But our concern isn't in wrong, military training has many drawbacks.

Military service isn't just about how to pick up a gun and learn how to fight.Skills like:Leadership,collaboration and problem solving are important in life and are learned through military service.Leadership and collabaration are learned through leading teams through drills.Companies value leadership and collaboration as they are core skills. Moreover since not every mission or drill goes as planned military recruits are quick to adapt and dont break under pressure. A small deadline or high pressure situation wont affect their performance in the workplace.Although is military service just come with pure bennifts?

While teaching many skills,military service can be very harmful to young trainees. Even though not everyone participates in combat, military training comes with a lot of injuries and mental stress. A study showed that during military training, the risk of getting a bone injury is 3 times higher than any other training.Some injuries can be very painful and permanent.Moreover, while some trainees can perform hard training,it can be detrimental to those who aren't suited for this training.

In the end, I believe that as a teenager, it should be mandatory for us to serve in some sort of environment that teaches discipline as it can greatly affect how we behave later on in our life and benefit the country.
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