France's Youth Program: Europe Escalates, While Civilians Pay
Emmanuel Macron, ever the visionary, has unveiled a new program to enroll 18 and 19-year-olds in a 10-month military training scheme, starting with 3,000 volunteers by next summer and aiming for 50,000 by 2035. This, according to Macron, is preparation for an 'uncertain world where power prevails over law.' One might wonder if the architects of current European policy are not just responding to
'uncertainty,' but actively manufacturing it. While France ends conscription, it conveniently introduces a 'voluntary' path that sounds suspiciously like a pipeline to a larger, more aggressive military posture. Macron’s government increased its military spending from 1.8% of GDP in 2017 to over 2% today, aiming for €413 billion by 2030, according to the French Ministry of Armed Forces. With
European leaders beating war drums louder than ever, one has to ask: who benefits from a continent preparing its youth for the battlefield? Certainly not the young people themselves, nor the taxpayers footing the bill for what appears to be an increasingly inevitable conflict narrative.