
It’s Silicon Valley or the Israeli Army for This Young Entrepreneur - turoczy
http://gigaom.com/2011/05/07/its-silicon-valley-or-the-israeli-army-for-this-young-entrepreneur/
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grandalf
I can't believe that a modern nation has mandatory conscription. It's truly
backward. What's with military prep school?

Military/wars are ultimately all political, so conscription places obedience
to the political leaders right in the middle of adolescence. Very unfortunate.

~~~
nir
Most Scandinavian nations have mandatory conscription. I wonder if requiring
all citizens to serve isn't preferable to establishing a military that
ultimately consists of those who have fewer alternatives for making a living.

As for obedience to political leaders, you have it completely backwards. A
professional military staffed mostly by the underclass is much more convenient
to political leaders. Military adventures are much easier when most people
don't personally know any soldier. Think about Vietnam vs. later conflicts.

~~~
Ras_
"Military service holds a vaulted position in Israeli’s entrepreneurial
culture. Many start up founders attribute their success to those post-
adolescent years spent following orders and memorizing technical manuals in
specialized army units."

Unfortunately this only seems to work in Israel. From a Scandinavian
perspective, and personal experience in the Finnish Defence Forces, our
conscription and entrepreneurship seem to have nothing to do with each other.
Our service does provide connections, but they don't readily turn into
businesses. Perhaps because there is nothing like the current threats around
Israel. Thus there is less procurement etc.

Finland's and Israel's aerospace/weapons industries have surprisingly much
common history. We had the leg up after WW2 until about 80's. Tampella (mostly
known for grenade launchers) and other Finnish manufacturers provided quite
many designs (for example Israel's Galil rifle was based on a design licensed
from Finland) and consulted in the development of Israel's armament industry.
Nowadays the tables have turned - Finland buys a lot of defense materiel from
Israel.

Scandinavian countries already have quite selective conscription.
International op requirements and cutbacks seem to be leading to rapid
professionalization (very apparent in Sweden). Soon Finland could be the only
N. European country with mandatory conscription, since it's the only non-Nato
country which borders Russia.

Military & entrepreneurship: Very interesting pair. Remember Steve Blank's
Secret History of Silicon Valley? <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFSPHfZQpIQ>

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tomjen3
What a waste - why destroy something promising just to get another warm body
for another useless conflict over a country so tiny most Americans walk longer
to take a piss and which may or may not have once played a role as the place
where some people who worshiped a god in their way slept until they were
kicked away by some other people who worshiped _the same God_ in a slightly
different manner? Why not at least let the delusional people fight it out
amongst themself.

And yes, it would have killed me to make the sentence shorter.

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epochwolf
Islam and Judism are very different religions. To say they worship the same
God is absolute ignorance.

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ugh
It's a pretty standard theological view that all Abrahamic religions (Judaism,
Christianity, Islam) worship (on some level) the same god.

