(Brussels) Since 1995, Belgium has relied on volunteers to man its armed services, how like so many other nations which have a voluntary service, they are unable to recruit as many people as they would like for its 28,000 man army. In fact over the past 10 years over 4000 people have left basic training for a variety of reasons , with 16% of them claiming 'home sickness' was the reason why they left.
Well some bright spark has decided that in order to reverse that trend, recruits should be allowed to stay at home during their Basic training (if they live nearby) and that they should be allowed to go home over the weekend as long as they are back on base by reveille first thing Monday morning.
The point that , that bright spark appears to have missed, is by forcing a bunch of strangers to live and work together for a set period of time is you instil in them all the qualities of an esprit de corps which is the glue of any effective fighting unit. Where you are prepared to go through thick and thin to protect your friends , even as much as laying down your life. Allowing recruits to bugger off every night won't achieve that and will only result in an half arsed military good for nothing.
