For a country like Croatia to be able to afford world-class navies and air forces that can take down those of larger countries, financially you need massive armies of slaves... ehm sorry, conscripts, who are extremely cheap and whose only job is to a) take cover and b) return fire. This is the value the Greek Army apports its conscripts. It has nothing to do with "masculinity", "social solidarity", "national responsibility" and other such bullshit. The army needs masses of slaves who get replaced in the meat grinder. This is how I felt in the Greek Army - I saw documentaries of inmates in American prisons and I noticed the same social dynamics in the Greek Army. And nobody wants to change it because it's "our national responsibility" to conscript people. Plus it's expensive for an indebted country of 10.4 million people to field 125,000 professional soldiers. It would require a doubling of the defence budget. Plus it's not that we even get anything back - training is virtually non-existent for most conscripts. And so on. Plus the reserves are left untrained. It's no surpirse, however, because the Greek state places all its bets on the Hellenic Air Force and the Navy to win the war; the Greek Army is an expendable asset.

What your army is trying to do, thankfully, is to *attract* people in the service. And train *reservists* who will last longer in the fight. Now that is the better way. Plus if you live in barracks 1.200€ is a damn good deal. You can actually enjoy life with that and not beg your mum for money or be forced to work alongside the Army then fall asleep on sentries and get punished for it. Both are regular realities for Greek Army conscripts.