Eesti Paevaleht website, Tallinn, Estonia
20 Nov 2006

Estonian daily: low salaries, lack of motivation causing soldiers to
quit

The lack of staff in the institutions that are important to the state
is spreading like a plague. Just recently, we talked about nurses and
the police. Now, the Estonian Defence Forces are threatened by a
drought of educated officers and noncommissioned officers. The reason
is always the same: uncompetitive, low salaries and the lack of
motivation. "I have remained in the Estonian Defence Forces simply
out of idealism, but one day that idealism will run out. The family
looks at you with stupid faces and your child asks: Daddy, when are
we going on vacation to a warm country for a week?" a member of the
Estonian Defence Forces complains in today’s paper. Well-trained
members of the Estonian Defence Forces are offered salaries that are
several times higher to go to work for completely different power
structures of the civil sphere.

Another reason is that independence was gained a long time ago and
that we live under the protective wing of NATO, so why do we need the
army at all? Maybe this is also where the lack of interest by the
government and the respective ministry in the Estonian Defence Forces
and its situation comes from. The modern wars – and definitely not
the wars in the future – are not held in trenches with rifles. It has
been said that World War III has already started and that it is
either ideological, religious, or economic. A country can be
conquered without a single gunshot. For example, let us look at how
Russia behaves towards Armenia. The front has become invisible. The
soldiers, with their fine uniforms and guns, only have a ritual
representative function. Entering military service does not motivate
the young much, either. There are complaints the health of the
conscripts is getting worse and worse. Who would want to freeze while
doing military training, instead of studying?

Yet, the lack of officers and noncommissioned officers is not as big
a problem as the lack of doctors, policemen, or bus drivers. Even
though people do not work in the aforementioned jobs simply out of
idealism – those professions are essential and must be well paid. At
least right now, it is not as important how many men that are armed
to teeth we have and how many officers are commanding them. A state
of war cannot be foreseen, and the needs of the workers are
increasing.