French Regret End of Mandatory Military Service

Most people in France think it was a mistake to abolish mandatory military service 12 years ago, according to a poll by Ifop published in Le Journal du Dimanche. 59 per cent of respondents regret the decision to suspend the practice, while 41 per cent stand by it. In 1798, the Jourdan Act established conscription in France, by deeming every French person "a soldier (who) owes himself in defence of the nation." French conscripts have not been deployed to a war zone since the 1954-1962 Algerian war of independence. In 1996, the French government decided to abolish the mandatory military service. French president Jacques Chirac said the "transformation of Europe’s strategic environment in the post-Cold War era" had made a 500,000 soldier military "excessive and ponderous." On Jun. 17, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced a... [read full story]