Armed farces

A DISY deputy has put the cat among the pigeons by suggesting a reduction in the length of military service.
Maria Kyriakou has said that Cyprus should follow the example set by Greece,which recently reduced the length of service to 14 months. The 26 months that young Cypriot males had to serve in the National Guard was far too long, she argued.

After all, modern armies no longer depended on numbers, but on the professionalism and the expertise of their soldiers. Conscripts received more than adequate training during the first year of their service and the second year was waste of time. She may be right up to a point, but does she really believe that the National Guard falls under the category of “modern armies”?

We should not delude ourselves, even though politicians have a tendency to grossly exaggerate the capabilities of the National Guard. Cyprus is far too small a country to have a modern army – its entire GDP would not be enough to finance a modern army. As for the numbers, Ms Kyriakou does not appear to have done her homework. The National Guard is so undermanned that it regularly calls in reservists to help man the guard-posts along the cease-fire line. But perhaps modern armies do not need to man their guard-posts – they might have computers to do it for them.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.