[orcdork]

This would have ben handled by military personnel in the (democratic) west, who would also "have no choice".

[tempguy9999]

If a western country has conscription, agreed. Where there's no conscription, they had a choice to join up or not.

[therealgranton]

Of course they had a choice to join. But romanticism of the military is (thankfully) starting to die out, much like the people forced to die as part of a radiation cleanup.

Most people join the military at a young age, when their brains aren't fully developed, so stating "Well, they shouldn't have signed up if they didn't want to die a horrible, unpredictable death" is easy to state, but hard to wrap your head around at that age. Hindsight is always 20/20.

[jcranmer]

Conscription was the norm for Western Europe in 1986 (and mandatory military service still exists in several European countries such as Sweden).

[kjsbfkjbf]

Is it a choice when alternatives are die poor and homeless? Oh wait, that is their fate after they leave the army.

Think about how many people take jobs they don't like: why did they choose it? Pretending like you have a "choice" when the other choice is dying/suffering, is harmful to growth imo.

I'm not commenting on the SU fetishism in this thread, but just making a general statement.

[mc32]

But this is not akin to asking our military to do a dirty job, it's akin to us having military personnel from other NATO nations to do the dirty work for our mistakes when they had very little to do with what was going on.