Who is willing to die for the homeland today?
Dulce et decorum est pro patria moriHoracio wrote. "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country." However, in this European climate conducive to expanding security and defense capabilities with large increases in the military budget for the coming years, why isn't there also talk of the need for more troops? If you will, in a word, what will be the increase in demand for soldiers willing to die honorably and sweetly for the country?
The current number of troops in Europe, both in NATO and non-NATO member countries, is estimated at 1.5 million. Around 200,000 in France and Germany, and 120,000 in Italy and Spain. It is not easy to compare countries in this area due to the diverse defense structures. For example, the role and numbers of reservists. The United States of America could have 1.35 million soldiers, with 800,000 reservists and 440,000 members of the National Guard. Russia, one million professional soldiers and two million reservists who can be mobilized, not counting North Korean mercenaries.
The European Union plans to increase defense spending from the current €200 billion annually to around €350 billion. 2% of GDP, as requested by NATO. Although the emphasis is always on the manufacture of weapons and military technology, respecting this spending ratio, between half a million and one million more soldiers would be needed. And, unlike until now, they would have to be recruited with the prospect of foreseeable intervention in future wars. This, then, is the meaning of my question. It is hard to imagine that there are young people interested in joining the army to meet the growing demand. And more specifically, it does not seem that there are young people—and not so young people—willing to risk their lives, if not for the homeland, then for those Western values, for democracy, for freedom, for prosperity, and for social rights.
In our country, Brecht's words have been heeded more than Horace's: "It is much sweeter and more honorable to live for one's country." Right now, who can feel challenged by those hymns we, those of us who still served in the military, had to sing about the pride of dying for one's country? Who is moved by the 1981 oath to the Spanish flag, still in force: "Do you swear by God or by his honor and promise Spain, kissing his Flag with unction, to obey and respect the King and his Leaders, never to abandon them and to shed, if necessary, in defense of the sovereignty and independence of the Homeland, of its unity and territorial integrity and of the constitutional order,"
Let's bring it to our country, where until four days ago there was a civil struggle for another sovereignty and another independence, and which was abandoned precisely because of the warning that there could be deaths! I haven't found figures on military vocations, but thanks to the surveys carried out by the Society for Military Studies since 2017, with numbers growing every year, we know that in 2024, half of Catalans think that an independent Catalonia should have an army, and 40% think it shouldn't. We know that young people aged 16 to 29 are especially in favor, 60%. And, still, we know that two-thirds of Catalans are in favor of its participation in international peacekeeping missions. Not bad in a state where confidence in the army is among the lowest in Europe, and for a country like ours, which propaganda often presents as pacifist!
The little or very justified climate of pre-war threat could change the desire to die for one's homeland. But a change I dare not predict in what direction it will go. For Catalans, moreover, if it were for our own, it would be a matter of dying for an uncertain, half-formed homeland that no one recognizes. And I'm not saying anything if losing one's life had to be for a European patriotism now in crisis, if it ever existed. The reasons that made it possible for 400,000 young Americans—300,000 killed directly in battle—to be willing to die in World War II fighting for their homeland and against a fascism that barely affected their territory are now incomprehensible to us.
The question, then, is who we'll count on now to defend a hypothetical war front. Perhaps those on the far right who champion a moth-eaten patriotism? Or will we turn to a mercenary army, incorporating immigrants—in France, the prestigious Foreign Legion already has nearly 10,000 troops—in exchange for granting them nationality, as is already done in Spain?
Every time they announce a bigger defense budget, please also tell us how many more soldiers will need to be trained for war.
