I find so many arguments abt "NSF now so soft, dunno whether can
defend country or not," coupled with the "during my time, we
were...."
No doubt, its a valid question to raise.
But an equally valid response/question is, "Could the older
generation have defended the country?" Have they in anyway been
involved in a direct confrontation or war that demonstrated their
ability to do so? No offense to the lao jiaos really.
NSF should respect the lao jiaos cos they were expected to
accomplish the same task of national defense, with less
sophisticated weapons, technology and tactics.
At the same time, I think the Lao Jiaos should also understand
that, there IS a force multiplying role for hi-tech weaponry,
tactics, and knowledge-based skills in today's warfare. Just look
at self propelled motars and howitzers of today, compared to the
man packed 120mm motars/ FH-88s of the 70s and 80s. So much
more firepower can be layed down using computerized techniques such
as MRSI that would have been a nightmare just to "imagine."
We'll never really know whether any batch of our conscript armed
force will be capable of national defence against an
aggressor until they are actually called into the fields of
battle.
And until then, as long as the SAF can maintain a level of military
deterrence like what its doing, we should regard our roles as NSFs
as "Mission Accomplished."
