I just read some statistics on Latvia's National Armed Forces and it appears that 18% of our soldiers are women. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Latvia has a professional army of 4900 soldiers, including Navy and other forces. What about your country?
In Turkey, it is obligatory for every single able-bodied man to serve training in the military for a certain amount of time (usually depending on different factors in your life, such as university attendance). Turkey has the second largest army in NATO (only behind U.S.), currently with one and a half million active personnel. However, it has 23,000,000 people trained and fit for military service at any crucial time. As for women, they don't do the actual fighting, but they do help out in many other ways. In the Turkish War of Independence, women worked in state factories, made and transported ammunition, ploughed lands, and volunteered as nurses.
Woman can join voluntarily in Syria but it is compulsary for Men to serve from 18, I think 2 1/2 years 4,900 soldiers?:bugeye: That is nothing, unless you have MASSIVE reserves. We have around 260,000 professional active soldiers and 200,000 reserves.
Very small reserves + national guard. Latvia has a population of about 2,300,000, you have 19,405,000. Besides, when we went over to professional army, it was clear any way that on our own we can't protect ourselves against Russia or Belorussia (the only real potential threat), so we specialize in participating in overseas operations, special ops and sapper units, and as a member country of NATO and EU rely on their heavy gun protection from Eastern neighbours.
In brazil all 18 year old males must enlist and serve 1 year. But because of the excess of people, they only effectively make serve those who want it. Everyone else goes to reserve. Women don't serve unless by their own will. I think women in the army is a baaad idea
Women in hand-to-hand combat role is a bad idea. Men are physically stronger and have more physical endurance than women. Furthermore, men are prone to rape a captured woman (not that they wouldn't torture a fellow male), but generally speaking, women garner special attention in hand-to-hand conflict situations that make them a severe liability in foxhole situations. Women as fighter pilots and on warships is another issue. I know that the US Navy has finally commissioned a few female warship captains. At the end of the day, if the job is a cerebral one (and not a physical one) then, regardless of gender, the best person should be placed in that spot. [see: Kathleen McGrath] ~String
Not my country, but I gotta say I wouldn't my getting thrown in the brig with these Ukrainian Army gals. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
...So? Yea, SeeSeeSeePee sent thousands of ethnic Latvians to Siberia and replaced them with thousands of ethnic Russians, but that did not make Latvians any more similar to Russians. Latvians have more things in common with Scandinavia and Germany. Germany brought over Christianity and alphabet and built Riga, the capital city of Latvia.
Well, Germans did build the first stone mansory building here and officially declared it a city, but there was a big fishing and trading settlement here before that, it's a strategic point because it was the start of one of the two ancient inland water ways to Kiev and further to the Black Sea.
