Quote Originally Posted by Eric C. View Post
Just imagine, for instance, what that would look like, if everyone was forced to become a doctor for a year. I guess hospitals would drown in patients' suits.
The analogy is not exactly right. It's more like forcing everyone to take medical training for a year, in case we'll need a lot of doctors in future. Most of these guys don't do anything useful or potentially harmful (like protecting the borders or guarding arsenals), and a lot of regiments are based in the cities, so they just learn military-related stuff.

There are a few sad exceptions, though, when recruits had to paticipate in real action (Afganistan, Chechnya). I don't know about Chechnya, but with Afganistan these 18-19 year olds didn't even know they were going to war, until they got there.