New Zealand Defense Forces: Reestablishment
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by Gaius Marcus
For too long have we gone without a military. After severaral attempts both sides have grown tired and sick of the fighting and seem to have let the issue die for now.
I think many are confused about the issue and don't have all the facts. To those who don't know what I'm talking about at all, I'll try to briefly summarize things.
There are several issues at hand, all which I will now list:
-Whether to use google documents or the Hub that Darkmantle created for administration purposes, such as orders, supplies, roll call, and activity.
-Whether to base things primarily from IRC, or forum, or a little of everything.
-To make a long story short, whether to keep the military apolitical as it was before or to go to a political military where the MoD has a lot more authority than he did in the old NZDF structure. Serbians want a more political military, non-Serbians want a apolitical military.
-Who should go into the Defense Council, and who should choose who gets to go into the Defense Council.
-and much more.
Serbians: Do not want the hub, prefer everything on IRC, want a more political military where the MoD has more authority than he currently does, and prefer to the google documents system over the Hub which Darkmantle designed. Want more people on the Defense Council.
Non-Serbians: Willing to use the IRC more, prefer the Hub over gdocs, wish for a strongly apolitical military, prefer that the MoD only handles strategic orders (decides where the military fights at) and nothing more or less. Prefer same amount of people on the Defense Council (5 including CoDF) since only the most experienced are making decisions, and since less people mean decisions are made more effeciently.
Both: Unclear about how to determine who goes on the Defense Council.
Important info on basic structure of military: (How it's always been and how many of the non-Serbians prefer it and former members of the NZDF prefer it)
-Minister of Defense/President tells the military where to fight and which battles take priority.
Commander of the Defense Force: Must have been a member of the DC to be voted as the CoDF. Handles all internal administrative issues, can override any promotion/demote. Also is responsible for finances: going to the MoF/Government/Congress and telling them how much money the military needs (after discussing with Defense Council. Also technically a member of the DC and votes on all DC issues.
-Defense Council: Made up of the four Branch Commanders of the military. May impeach the CoDF and also vote for the new CoDF. Votes on all the most important military decisions (such as adding more ranks, adding or removing a branch, changing military policy, etc, just to name a few)
-Branch Commanders: Are all members of the DC. Have complete authority over their own branch but CoDF may override any promotion/demotion they make.
-Branch Officer: The 2nd in command the assistant of every BCO. In charge of the grunt work, such as distributing supplies and reviewing the commanders, making sure everyone is active, etc. Also responsible for personnel records.
-Regiment commanders: responsible for a unit of about 10-20 privates. Also may appoint a 2nd in command.
I admit my description of what each side wants is slightly biased obviously. However the facts as they are are all as true as I'm aware they can be. Decide for yourself Kiwis, what do you prefer? Or do you have a version of the military alternative to both sides?
Personally I think the military structure as we had it before Darkmantle disbanded it was just fine. Why fix something that isn't broken, as the structure goes. I believe the Serbians wish to alter the military simply to match their own personal preferences.
The Hub is very advanced and can be programmed to do an immense amount of things, as well it is far more secure than google documents. It can track supplies, personnel, as well it can be used for roll call (soldiers log into it daily to record their activity), also it can be used (on the page where soldiers login) to tell everyone what the current orders are.
Also I strongly believe in an apolitical military. The MoD sole purpose, as it has always been (used to be the Presidency which handled the MoD's duties) is to tell the military where to fight.
I believe it unnecessary for the MoD to handle finances, involve himself in the military's internal affairs, or even make an official military newspaper. The CoDF has handled all of these since the militaries existence and there has never been an issue with the way we had things.
Also, I'm not opposed to the serbians wanting IRC being heavily used and the forum's use for the military being replaced by IRC completely. I prefer forums over IRC, but this is a concession I believe is necessary to make things go smoothly as far as reestablishment.
As well, the Serbians have demanded that the Kiwi's military have half it's Defense Council as Serbian. Personally, I am not strictly opposed to this, though I strongly believe the military leadership should be based purely on merit, and not race. To me it's just them trying to get more influence over the military. They already control the congress/presidency, to me, there is no need for them to also control the military.
I also believe having two heated/opposing groups commanding the military is disasterous for military leadership and unity. This could lead to many future problems down the road with each half of the Defense Council constantly battling it out over minor issues and ultimatley rendering the military weaker than it was before.
From personal experience, when we made half of Calbe's cabinet Serbian, it lead to miscommunication and disaster, with the Serbian side being uncommunicative and generally uncooperative with their non-Serbian coworkers.
However, reluctantly, this is a concession I am willing to make so that the military can be finally reestablished.
I fully expect to be bashed heavily for much of the 'insults' I've made towards the Serbians but I see no need to sugercoat anything; it's for the better that I tell things as I see it. I only ask people to be civil in their comments and use constructive critisism. 😃
Lastly and repeating an earlier point, I believe we shouldn't fix something that isn't broken, but we should make concessions where necessary to get things going again.
What do all the kiwis reading this think? Should we generally stay with things the way they were or go along with the Serbian demands? Or, do you have your own verison of the military?
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The way things were before, were better than what is being demanded by the eSerbian/eSlovene side.
The DC should not be decided on race, but on Military Experience.
I'm sure that the eSerbs have more than enough candidates for that seeing as quite a few are members of former military PTO groups.
very long article, but i mostly agree with what you have raised. there are many issues to decide..but i think this is healthy. we start to argue on issues and merrits of matters and as Balkan said it - not as a Serb vs non Serb matters.
Come on. Let's make this happen!
ps: sorry gauis, i ll stop calling you marcus. 😃
Considering Darkmantle has zero to do with the current administration at this time, I suggest you simply follow the leader, so to speak.
What do you mean by that Adam? Give into Serbian demands regarding the military?
And why would Darkmantle having nothing to do with the current administration affect anything?
I believe Gaius Marcus to be Correct GAIUS FOR CoDF!
I don't think you can call the last version of the military apolitical.
I was sent orders telling me where to vote in the last round of congress elections.
I would never dream of speaking for all non-serbs as you do (for the record I'm English), but this has reached a point where I don't care about this argument any more. Please can you and the Serbs sort it out like growed ups and just restart the ****ing military.
we didn't pressure it to need restarting, they wanted the privilege of how things are done instead of just joining and moving up the ranks like everyone else, they want privilege because they are "serbian" and not Kiwis...thats why council must be half "serbian"
Daniel- I speak for the non-serbians whom have made their voice heard regarding such matters. And Calbe declared the military apolitical right before the elections when Don won. So the military I am talking about is the one after such things occured.
Does it matter how the military is structured, as long as you get to serve eNZ? All of this bickering is pointless. Just serve and stop arguing about it.
Yeesh, people are so picky over the stupidest things...
The thing is Adam, both sides have different ideas. The Serbians want it to be done how it is in eSerbia, but this is eNZ.
The structure we had works before. Instead of doing their idea, where orders are put on IRC (insecure, people can get around IRC easily if they wanted too), and you use a lot of GDOCs, the others want the old structure, where it's all centralized on a secure API hub.
I'll onlly comment on the hub since I did code it and know it more than all of you. It literally does everything FOR you, taking the burden off of people in a way. It updates people via API automatically, you have to register with API (secure), you can display orders to specific groups, track soldiers activity, track their regiments, track companies and their information, and even add a section in it (doing soon) to track who has been supplied.
The only way to get near to that is either use numerous GDOCs (which is awkward and insecure) or an IRC bot (which will take time to make).
If the Serbians are too lazy to log into the hub once a day (that is all it takes, what other reason could there be?), then it's their problem. We're giving a concession in the form of not using the forums and using IRC, but we need other ways to do announcements/orders etc, which would be the hub. If we give up forums, what will THEY give up? It's not much to ask.
I liked the hub. Due to numerous RL issues I can't spend my life on here. It made it very easy to log on, see what I should be doing and then do it. It's a shame if the exSerbs refused point blank to use it. Perhaps the solution would have been to continue to use it and get the exSerbs to use it if they felt curious or wanted to see how it worked. Thing is Darkmantle, it is so good that it would have found fans quite quickly.
Well, if the next president makes it a promise to utilize the hub, then it shouldn't be much of a problem. After all, if there are people that aren't going to use it, then they wouldn't be of much help in a battle, anyway.
I would like it if the API would work on my iPod Touch, but that's technology for a later date.
I just hope the some of the Serbians (Kurojca) see this and respond.
I guess I'll send out some pms.
"Does it matter how the military is structured, as long as you get to serve eNZ? All of this bickering is pointless. Just serve and stop arguing about it.
Yeesh, people are so picky over the stupidest things..."
Yes it matters. Military effectiveness and succcess helps eNew Zealand be a stronger country. I want a stronger eNZ.
The structure has only been in place for less than a couple of months. Change wouldn't be so drastic that it would spell the end of the country.
If you can't handle change this shortly after the nation's beginnings, then you won't last long in society.
Not really. If you notice "we" want to make several concessions to the eNZ, and in return we want some concessions from them (keeping certain parts of the military the same).
Answer me this, then. Why should they give you any concessions, when they are in the majority, and supposedly going to be in power next month?
Why not? If they want to work with us, THEY want too, then they need to accept we won't just mold into their shape. Both sides need to meet in the middle.
What mantle said. However, they DO have every right to use the advantage of their majority to it's full extent and ignore the complaints of the minorities.
But if they are going to do that (ignore the minority), then I don't to see them suger-coating everything and pretending they care about what the opposition/minorities want. They should be honest and direct, not two-faced.
Dude you have to understand that Government MUST have political control over armed forces! If that's not the case then we don't have NZDF, we have NZPF (NZ Paramilitary Forces).
What Dimitrij says.
I always have to laugh when people talk about the "NZ way on how to do things" as if this country was there for 2 years.
If you don't like the government to have any say about the NZDF, just continue to act like mercenarys, but don't expect any funding.
Because, where's the benefit for NZ with an army that basically does what they want and don't listen to anyone. NZ might as well hire the Lazokrats for battles then, at least they are well organized and do incredible damage.
@Dimitrij and reaktionaer:
It says in the article that orders on where to fight are decided by MoD and the CP. I don't see any reason for there to be more control than that.
Nicely put Spud of Doom. A very good article!!!
To emphasize what Spud said, military leadership MUST follow an order on where to fight and which battles take priority.
Politics, as we know from this whole serbian issue, is volatile. That should not be bought into the NZDF which is the front line defense for the nation. Which is why it should be apolitical in the sense that it practically runs itself. The only things the government should be included in is funding and orders.
Anything else is not needed from them. The NZDF should be trusted to run their own structure and command, and everything else. At least that way there is a sense of stability, whereas politically the MoD could keep changing things monthly.
Good thing your opinions on the military mean nothing now, right, ex-CoDF?