Military Service Should not be a Mandatory in Colombia

William Durán, Andrés Fúquene

Military service is a controversial topic all over the world, although there have been some differences about it depending mainly on the country laws. The first country that has mandatory military service in Latin America is Chile, and it was in 1900. Countries like Iran, Greece, Russia, South Korea and Egypt force their men, and in some cases their women, to get into the service. A general aspect of the military service is that they require people between 18 and 21 year old the most. They could be either urban or rural areas citizens.  In  the army, they also  have  some  requirements about  weight, height and traits  to  draft their  workforce. In Colombia there are  people that go just because, other people  are forced  to  go,  and  some  other  people  that want to  join the army, but  they are  not accepted. We believe that military service should not be mandatory, and we will explain why with different arguments.

Many  people say  mandatory military service would  have very  good  advantages because  people  who  join the  army would become stronger  not  only   physically but  also mentally. According to what they say, people would have more discipline and responsibility every way; putting people into the service, we might avoid some general national problems in different topics like for example, in health we could decrease a great percentage of the obesity. That is not totally true because many people come back from the war with mental illnesses or bad behaviors that did not exist before their military service. For example, the posttraumatic stress disorder is a common disease of people that have gone to the war. With the posttraumatic stress disorder, you can hear about other experiences of anxiety or anger behavior. Another case is about some people that have not gone to the army and they are responsible citizens with a lot of discipline like university or high school   students. When our young people come back from the military service, they have had time away from the academic knowledge, and they become disinterested to learn new things; In some cases, they would rather do  other activities different to study.

First it is necessary to talk about the people who disagree with the military service, they are called “objectors” and with them some politicians support this idea. For instance, the secretary of government, Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo. He is working, with different human rights organizations about conscience objections, and their goal is to get it as a fundamental right. “Who does not want to go to war should not have to go to war”, he said. Conscience objection is the refusal to comply with certain legal standards that people considered opposite to their ethical or religious beliefs. The objectors totally disagree with illegal drafting in Bogota. There are many people who believe that conscious objections are valid for those who do not agree with the war or those who their political or religious beliefs are against the violence. Finally they are based on our political constitution which says in its Article 18: “... it is guaranteed freedom of conscience. No one shall be molested for his convictions and beliefs or compelled to reveal them or forced to act against his conscience”.

Another topic is about the selection to the military service. There are boys who want to go there, but they cannot be accepted because they do not have the necessary requirements to get in, for example the height. The idea to take people who do not want to go to  war is dangerous because in our troops you can find young people with mental problems like Posstraumattic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and some other mental diseases, which in some studies has reached up to 80%. In Vietnam veterans found that up to 66% had other affective, or anxiety disorder, and 39% had alcohol abuse or dependence. In Colombia there is a prevalence of 16,66% for PTSD (Corzo P, Bohorquez A, 2009). We thought that it is better if our troops have brave boys, that are sure about what they are doing. That is why,  the objectors believe about the importance of the willing  to be there for our soldiers and anybody who protects us.

Military service in Colombia affects principally the poor and country people, who do not have the right to declare themselves as conscience objectors, and cannot pay for the military card. Annually, about 80,000 young people are forced to get  into the armed forces. The rich and the middle class pay huge quantities of money to buy the military card. Many politician’s sons. For example, Alvaro Uribe’s did not do the military service. Conscience objectors argue that paying for the military card is to collaborate economically with the war and that is like paying for the bullet that could kill someone. The position is more moral, and ethical than real; Military card does not generate more revenue for the armed forces, whose budget amounts is about 3.4 trillion pesos. But the injustice does not end there because the people who do not have military card live a kind of civil death. They cannot work, or sign any kind of contract with the government; They also have many difficulties to find employment in the private sector, where many companies require the military card. They cannot even get their degree at some educational institutions.

According to these arguments, it is evident that military service has important and serious consequences in our society, like for example it could affect the mental health of people who go there. Besides that, it is unfair not only for poor people who have to pay huge quantities of money to buy the military card, but also for the conscious objectors who do not have the same opportunities to get jobs or  their degrees. Being against the military service is a right that many people do not know, and many authorities do not respect. We are totally sure that military service should not be mandatory.

PREVALENCE OF ACUTE STRESS DISORDER AND POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN COLOMBIAN SOLDIERS WOUNDED IN COMBAT

PAULA A. CORZO P., M.D. ^a* Y ADRIANA P. BOHÓRQUEZ P., M.D. ^b