This year I will only convey my best wishes and hopes for good health to all, because it's really the only thing I can actually do. Considering the screwed up state of the world, any attempt at words like "happy" would be hypocritical, at best. And I'm not one to see the world with pink glasses.

"Prepare for the worst, hope for the best" should be humanity motto right now. I have no idea what 2026 will ultimately bring, but it will definitely be a dangerous year. I don't know how the events are perceived in the US but in Europe it's all about rearming and war preps. After doubling the military budget in 2025, for the first time in 30 years France just reintroduced (voluntary for now) conscription to boost up the military numbers and readiness so that should give you an idea of where things are at. Other European countries are not different, each in its own ways, is bracing for impact. And if impact comes, there will be retaliation, US or no (we're way past counting on Washington).

For those reasons, I won't say "happy" anything, because that would be premature at the very least.

But I can wish the best for the months to come, so let's leave it at that.

Quote from: Starfox on Jan 02, 2026, 12:56 PMFrance just reintroduced (voluntary for now) conscription

How does that work, exactly?  Doesn't that mean you can just... join the military?  Could they not before?

They could. but in time of peace we have a limited military for a bunch of reasons (mainly financial). So of course people could apply, like for any job, but the number of positions are strictly limited. This new "conscription" disguises an extension of the armed forces (to be honest it's mainly political BS). They put more men in uniform but, most importantly, they won't be paid nearly as much as professional soldiers because they won't be considered professionals. So the name is more administrative than anything else.

In exchange for the lower pay, they will receive military training but be kept out of any real combat, unless the proverbial crap hits the proverbial fan. Then once their period is over they will be considered reserve for use in crisis, so the second to go (after the professionals) if the crap hit the fan. I also think they will have less time to serve (today a contract for professional military in France is 5 years, renewable until you can't do it anymore; those new "conscripts" will only have one year or maybe two at most). I also expect that the requirements to be accepted will be somewhat lower than for the professionals. You don't have to be picky when you pay someone around €1100 a month -- plus food and lodgings; (standard pay for the lowest ranking professional soldier is €1900+, x2.5 when operating overseas). And since you don't plan to send the conscripts in operation you don't have to pay the x2.5 and all the bonuses that the professional military has (for a risky job performed in risky corners of the world).

I knew a Colonel, a long time ago, who was paid around €6500 (around $7600) per month which was the standard for a French Colonel back then (again, it was 30 years ago, I expect it to be much more now) and every three months his pay was increased by around €3000 (around $3500) which represented all the bonuses and pensions he had gained during his full career. All professional soldiers are entitled to bonuses as soon as they go into action. The amount depends on the time you spend in operation and the location (outside of France -- what we call OpEx or Operations Extérieures -- is of course better paid than staying at home doing nothing).

But I digress. Effectively what this "voluntary conscription" does is to get more of the standard population ready to fight if needed for a low cost in training -- lower than normal. We lost that ability when we decided to end the conscription in 2000 to switch to professionals only. When we were running with mandatory conscription, 90% of the French male population at least learned how to handle and use a gun. Nowadays they are trained on Call of Duty which is far to be ideal... Then again, what would really be ideal would be a world where that kind of training would be no longer needed.

Officially, the goal is to increase the number of trained people (men and women able to point a gun at enemies and to hit them without dying) by 70,000 per year. We'll see how that goes though because the plan was announced by Macron last week and there are people already questioning it. As usual with the French. For some reason, conscription, even voluntary, sounds like "mobilization" to some, which is not what it is but you can't prevent tongues from wagging especially when they are feeling the heat of the forge -- I mean, at this moment in time the idea of mobilization is not far-fetched although it's probably not an official consideration right now, more like an option that you wish you'll never have to use.