[user104658]

Originally Posted by Jesus.

Well at the moment, war is completely inconsequential for most people. I know it's not completely fair, and I also know it's probably unworkable, but it's just what I believe. I don't think the Iraq war happens if my rule is in place, though.

War only affects so few of us these days, as it's something we just watch in the early hours on skynewsHD night vision cam, whilst the ambiguity of pained speeches from leaders pretending to be concerned about the soldiers whilst simultaneously sending them off to die illegally is stark and infuriating.

That fire service analogy misses the mark completely.

It is infuriating, but their lack of concern for soldiers is only an extension of their lack of concern for human life in general, military or otherwise. They see them as a statistic, just as with civilians dying in understaffed / underfunded UK hospitals or the countless ATOS deaths.

My analogy with the fire service is only this: both jobs carry heavy risks, but both are voluntary. That unscrupulous politicians might send you off to die in an illegal war isn't a secret... it's fairly well established information at this point, and so any new recruit in our armed forces can't POSSIBLY claim that they didn't know being sent into a morally ambiguous warzone was a very real possibility at the point of signing up for service.

If someone doesn't want to fight in an illegal war at this point, then being blunt, they should avoid military service like the plague. They are not drafted. They make that choice.