In light of all this, ideas have been proposed in recent decades regarding the development of this army, One such idea was to transform it into a “professional” army, thereby reducing its size and consequently lowering its expenses, Professionalism would eliminate mandatory service and enhance the soldier’s military skills, Another idea was to legalize “evasion,” meaning the refusal of mandatory military service and its replacement with civilian service, as is the case in many European countries, What no one had considered was the transformation of the army into a mercenary force composed of foreigners such as Uyghurs, Chechens, Syrians, and others, tasked with protecting the regime, as is the case with the current regime,This would then lead to the destruction of the “rank hierarchy” system within a structure that was originally born from the womb of mercenary activity—that is, from the system of the Levant Army, Now, there is no army, only Syrian and foreign mercenaries who take orders from generals of religious militias, By some miracle, a person can become a general, like Abu Qasra or Abu Amsha, and other religious militia mercenaries who are only good at practicing… Assassinations and the killing of civilians throughout Syria, from north to south and from east to west, are wolves to the Syrians and rabbits towards the Israelis, who occupy parts of the country as they please, There is no regular army in Syria now, and therefore it is not permissible to maintain what is called compulsory conscription, because it forces some Syrians to live and interact with religious mercenaries who have no civil, military or even religious morals , Therefore, we see the solution in “conscientious objection,” and this is what we want to address in some detail.      

We are trying to raise a topic that may become a reality after the fall of the current regime. Abolishing compulsory service will automatically solve the problem of conscientious objection, as it is possible to combine compulsory service with refusing this service for conscientious reasons, or what is called conscientious objection, which removes what resembles the sanctification of military service imposed by the law of the state, and allows for the dominance of the rules of personal conscience.

The story of conscientious objection is deeply rooted in human history , The first to object was the Roman soldier Maximilianus in 295 AD, considering this service to be contrary to his faith. Because of his objection, he was executed, but he was later given the title of saint, That is, the Roman authority acknowledged the error in assessing conscientious objection and gave precedence to the judgments of personal conscience over the state law in this regard, There are dozens of countries that respect the method of conscientious objection, which dates back to Roman law, There are only two countries in Europe that do not operate on the concept of conscientious objection, which we think are Greece and Spain. The remaining countries operate on the concept of conscientious objection, that is, they allow objection to military service in exchange for the obligation to perform a certain amount of civil service. 

There is no doubt that conscientious objection is a human right, based on Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, This article addresses freedom of thought, conscience, and expression, The provisions of Article 18 are also found in Article 9 of the Charter of the European Union and Article 12 of the Inter-American Convention, All these articles affirm the right to conscientious objection to military service, a right not recognized in many countries, particularly Arab states with laws derived from Sharia, which incite fighting and jihad, and do not recognize the concept of nation-states, Regarding compulsory military service, there are numerous religious edicts (fatwas) that, for example, reject saluting the flag and limit the objectives of military action to defending God, There is no concept of conscientious objection in Sharia, as was the case with the Roman soldier in 295 AD, In short, one cannot expect a specific stance on this issue from those who do not recognize nation-states, as there are no nation-states, no regular armies, only militias or religious mercenaries, The conscience is a matter that concerns armies and fighting, and this conflicts with the conscience.

We do not believe there is a situation that necessitates compulsory military service in Syria, as the Syrian experience with armies, militias, and wars is not positive, Given the negative aspects of wars and their consequences, the tendency to reduce the militarization of society may be a positive thing, There are more than 20 countries in the world without armies, These countries are linked by defense agreements with large countries, meaning that the principle and requirement of securing the defense of the homeland is practiced in all countries of the world in different forms.

If an army is necessary to defend the homeland, the ideal solution is an army of volunteers, i.e., an army of professionals without obligation, Thus, there is no need for arrangements for conscientious objection, Whoever does not want to join the army should not apply to join the army!