How wars/conflicts are declared.

[sanaxe1]

Ok so this is inspired by a reddit post. Firstly I know we have all sorts of agreements with countries such as NATO etc so lets make this a hypothetical question were they do not exist.

Would you prefer it if any offensive conflicts like libya or wars like Afghanistan and Iraq could only be declared after a national referendum. And any person that votes yes automatically gets put down as a reserve/volunteer which can be called upon for the war effort. ( They will be assigned to what ever skill they have )

I personally think that this would be a better then just letting the politicians decide as although we have entrusted them to speak for us, we all know that this is not the case be that from other counties putting pressure on the government or Lobbying from large companies which could profit from the wars. I also think it limits the propaganda / agendas of certain types of media.

I also think that when a person knows that they could be called up for the war it makes them think more about what they are voting for as it seems to me like war is desensitized as the wars are half way around the world.This means the average person has no idea about the true cost of wars for example all the civilians killed and soldiers etc. The average person is just going on with there life's as usual. Sure they see it in the news but its a farcry from being told right see all that blood shed you say you agree to down the pub? Well pack your bags your going there.

 

[sanaxe1]

It's absurd because most people are not soldiers and you would never manage to get any war declared ever so all the British overseas territories would be seized and we'd be a laughing stock.

I'm not saying that they would 100% be called up, only for emergencies. If they have a skill which the military currently needs due to shortages say a engineer they will then be called up.

 

[sanaxe1]

But isn't that the point? Why should we be involved in these wars? The only time we should is if we are defending ourselves. What benefit has the Iraqi war had on the british people? If there is no benefit for the people yet we still decide to go then obviously someone else is benefiting and the whole they are representing us is defunct. Hence i proposed a referendum. The volunteer thing was to try to counter act rash decisions people make from scare tactics used by media to form public opinion by making them really think about there decision.