 <ICLE-FIN-JYV-0002.1> 
I hate war. I fear it more than anything else. But I believe in self-defence. I am ready to defend my country by force of arms. I think I owe it those almost 100.000 Finns who died in 1939-45 defending this country. I also think that it is every citizen's duty to defend his/her country. In one way or another .
A common topic in the Finnish media has been, and still is, whether women should have the right to a military service. The right, not a duty. In my opinion, if a woman really so desires, she should have the possibility of the armed service. But still, and I don't mean to underestimate women in any ways, the idea of a woman dashing and crawling against the enemy with an assault rifle in her hands seems very strange to me. After all, there are other ways of defending one's country. The women's auxiliary defence services had a great role during the war fifty years ago. A fact which is often forgotten. But women's armed service could work just fine. It does work in Israel, so why not elsewhere?
The proposal for a Finnish army of professional soldiers has got a little less attention. As a substitute of the whole system of national service it can't even be taken seriously. In superpowers like the USA that kind of hired troops are sufficient, but not in small countries like Finland. It has been suggested though, that we could have hired troops together with the national service system. That small army of professional soldiers could be used as part of the UN's forces on combat areas around the world, in a way, fighting for peace. That would be quite another thing. But the replacing of the national service with professional soldiers only would be an unconsidered act. In a country of a few million people it would be impossible to gather up an adequate army out of volunteers. It would also be pretty absurd to leave the defending of a country to a few passionate patriots .
I see the system of national service, in any country, as a uniting factor. A shared will to defend the country keeps the people together and therefore this system is worth preserving. Besides that, for small countries it is the only way to maintain the credibility of their defensive forces. It would be foolish and probably fatal for any nation to say: "We don't have any enemies. Why should we need an army?" President Thomas Jefferson had many ideas about the army. In a sense, he was right saying: <*> .
