Slightly OT, but it's relevant to the issue of the militarisation of society which can be one of the unintended side-effects of universal military service(and remember it was West-Pointer ex-General Dwight D Eisenhower who warned of the dangers of the "military-industrial complex").

I found this in an article by a Tel Aviv University professor on a site entitled "Open Democracy":

" Concerned opinion around the world has tended to see Israeli politics as divided between secular, democratic politicians and religious extremists. There is a third force, the political generals. They are secular and believe in the supremacy of force. In a way, a slow, military coup, albeit one that has organised popular support behind it, has taken place in Israel.

"From Wellington to Eisenhower and de Gaulle, generals have become legitimate political leaders. But in doing so they have put their army behind them. In Israel's case it seems increasingly that the generals have moved into politics in order to put the society behind the army. This is an issue needing close attention. I have sought to analyse it in a recent book ('Detruire La Palestine, ou comment terminer la guerre de 1948', La Fabrique, France, April 2002) and will be returning to it in next week's issue of openDemocracy."

Ironically, Colin Powell is one of the few figures around Dubya whom I would tend to respect and trust, but maybe that's because he has seen the reality of war in Vietnam. That distinguishes him from many of the boardroom armchair generals who seem to make up an influential part of that entourage and who evidently seem to think that cheap oil for young men's lives is a fair trade.

Click here for the full article