After Aleksandar Vučić expressed his desire, the Government of Serbia urgently announced that it wants to re-introduce mandatory military service. "Vreme" asked several young men what they thought about it
Military service would last a total of 75 days, it would consist of two parts - 60 days of training and 15 days of practice, and it would be mandatory for men and voluntary for women. That's what it says in the Government's proposal, although a lot of things are left undefined or not explained in detail.
Dušan Živković from Niš recently turned 21, and he was planning, he says, to serve his military service when he graduates. This law does not affect him excessively, considering that he has always been interested in what it is like to be a soldier.
"I want to go for personal reasons. I like to be active and I think I would like it, it would teach me to be disciplined", says Dusan.
"Still, the army is a serious thing and I don't know how smart it is to make military service mandatory, not everyone is for it, and that's okay." He who goes there only because he is forced to will do more harm than good," Dušan believes.
Will the sons of SNS officials go to the army?
However, Dušan is one of the few who enthusiastically views the obligation to serve in the army. Other interlocutors of "Vremen", for one reason or another, do not have an excessive desire for the army.
"I would not like for politically motivated government measures to take away two and a half months of my studies, work and life." If it is ever necessary to strengthen the army, or the conflict in the region becomes a real threat, it is a consequence of the irresponsible policy of those who send us to the barracks", says a twenty-two-year-old young man who asked us to remain anonymous.
He adds that he doubts that it is even feasible to send two million people who have families, jobs or are still students to the army.
The army to harden us - foolishness
"The question is whether the army has the capacity to implement all that," concludes our interlocutor.
Another young man, who also wanted to remain anonymous, claims that he is personally "not interested in any barracks, training and weapons", and calls the stories about how men need the army to become tough "nonsense".
And he says: "Whoever wants to grow up and toughen up can do it without the army, whoever doesn't want to, not even three years of military service will help him." A complete waste of time, luckily it didn't occur to them to take more than two and a half months of our lives. Finally, there are the people who made that decision and who lead this country. They make this whole story even more repulsive to me. I'm really interested in whether the sons of SNS officials will also join the army."
I am not afraid of military service, but of political war
Damjan Vučković from Belgrade says that serving in the army alone is not a problem for him, as much as he is afraid of the possibility of a war conflict.
"I'm going to Milan to study." I am afraid of the possibility of a war breaking out and potentially imposing sanctions on Serbia. Military service itself doesn't sound so scary to me, I think those two and a half months can even be interesting. I heard a lot of interesting stories from the army from my father and uncle," says Damjan.
He believes, however, that it is crucial to remain only on military terms, that is, to avoid a situation where mobilization for another senseless war begins.
"If I could choose, I would rather go 'over' to build a life there." If I have to, I would serve in the army in the hope that the peace would not be threatened. It's one thing when someone actually attacks your country, and quite another thing when various politicians drag you into conflict. Of course, the thought of that scares me," he concludes.
Only if I really have to.
Marko Teodosić from Prokuplje says that according to him, the whole idea of military service sounds nice, "but in practice it is painful".
"In the end, there are no bad things about it." There you can learn a lot about yourself. However, I have to be honest, I don't feel like it at all. If I have to, I will go, but reluctantly".
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