Writers Ante Tomic and Draza Petrovic criticize the return of mandatory military service: "We live in frozen time"

"We live in frozen time. We learn nothing from our own foolishness, and everything repeats itself," Tomic told *Novi dan* on N1.

If the mandatory military service is reinstated, Tomic believes it will happen on a much smaller scale than imagined.

"A peaceful country doesn’t have the strength to restart a mechanism it has already dismantled," he said, adding that the loud announcements will result in something much less than what is expected.

"It seems to me that some of our states, nationalist regimes, are more used to spending money on themselves rather than buying shoes and shirts for recruits.

I doubt they have the strength or will to rebuild a large system like the military," Tomic emphasized.

"A done deal in Serbia"

"Those of us who have already served are at peace, but the younger generation will have to face a ‘digest version’ of military service," said Draza Petrovic.

In his view, military service is being reinstated more for muscle-building purposes, and citizens "somehow love the military" and the send-off ceremonies that precede it.

"Something has to be celebrated, and now it will be the departure for 75 days of military service," Petrovic concluded.