Dear Editor,

I was delighted to learn that the Military Department had given its backing to the assault rifle shooting courses given to schoolchildren in Sissach as part of the "Holiday Passport" scheme. And it wasn't half-hearted: human-shaped targets were used.

I welcome this as an excellent military reflex. It is a question of getting our children interested in the arts of war at an increasingly early age, in order to counter the dangerous rise of pacifism.

This is already for the sake of economy, for what use would our arsenal be in a pacified world? I shudder with horror! What unemployment, what boredom, what waste and what debacle!

To avoid such misadventures, it is now essential to introduce into our schools an education based on concepts that no longer have to prove themselves: patriotism, obedience, sport and discipline. I suggest that during manual work, the study of the crafting of the atomic bomb should be included in the program. We would then have a proud youth ready to defend their country and their homes against invaders, from outside as well as from within.

Alain-Yan Mohr, Geneva

Letters to the editor, November 20, 1983