Archive for August 2010

Citizen in Uniform

Here in Germany, we again have the debate about ending the draft, a change that I support. My guess: It’ll be gone by 2020, but survive this legislature period (which runs until 2013). In the debate about this, one hears a lot of phrases like “Staatsbürger in Uniform” (uniformed citizen) or “Verankert in der Gesellschaft” (anchored in society) as support for the draft and the dreaded “Staat im Staat” (state within a state) as the opposite. What the hell is all that supposed to mean?