We're getting a little off-topic for this thread about my github account!

I do however wish to emphasize that the observations about conscription are universal, i.e. similar opinions could probably be found from officers in any conscription military. To a certain degree, I served in the IDF simply due to legal inertia; around the age of sixteen I began making inquiries about the various ways people had either evaded the service requirement, or accepted it and made the most of the experience, and my conclusion after about a year of gathering and forming opinions was that although I could have mounted an effective case as a conscientious objector, it would actually not have been an honest one. This was a difficult realisation for a geeky teenager who had all sorts of grandiose ideas, including thinking of himself as a pacifist. I realised that I was not as much of a pacifist as I had naively imagined. The grandiose ideas did survive, although mostly just as sad dreams for a better world that might only be attainable for future generations.