Eric, they are not forced into a profession! They have to spend about a year serving their country, protecting it. After that, they have done their duty and can go to university or get any job they want. While they are in the military they are taken care of and can travel, eat and live for free, so they have almost no expenses.

In Sweden we say that women carry a baby for nine months; men to military service for a 9-12 months. Not a big deal whatsoever and many guys enjoy it. Those who really don't want to do it can usually get out of it by faking an illness or pretending to be gay. If you are a pacifist you can drive an ambulance, be a hospital helper or something like that.

In Israel for example, everyone, man or woman has to do it for 2-3 years! Most Asian countries have military service and many countries in Europe. It's part of life but hopefully sometime in the future it will no longer be needed.

The only problem is if, like in Russia, people die why doing it - due to bullying; that should be investigated and stopped.