This is my first posting in Sajha, so you might think I am a misguider, but, I was compelled to post this message after going through this thread. First thing, I was very proud of the Nepalese army till recent times. I used to believe that it was the only organisation left in Nepal which is true to Nepalese. Eventhough I dont have any relative, close or far, in Army I was proud of it. Recently Prachanda made this remark about Army. The moment I listened to it, I thought it was a little too much. It kept on disturbing my mind. I thought, if 70000 army people are dismantled, what will they do? How will they feed them and their family? Then I thought again. This time with a cool mind. Who is feeding them right now?? Um.. It is the common nepalese people, us, who are feeding them with our tax. What do they do in return to us? Well in times of disaster,they do relief works. Only that?? um.. if there is an attack from india or china they will go to fight for us. But this attack thing is outdated. It wouldnt happen in the 21st century. Even if it would, it is obvious that it wont be able to save Nepal. (It couldnt even fight the 10000 maoists) What else?? Well, there is british gorkha who get a lots of foreign curreny for Nepal. And also in Indian army, they do get well paid. Well it is only a small bunch of army men. A large group of army is actually in the barracks.. training, serving jernels and kernels.. Some of them actually raping the local girls! (you should ask the people living near the army barrack. they are afraid to go nearby at nights. the reason is obvious!! ) So, I changed my opinion, I think the big army is not our need. But it would be sad to dismantle it. Instead we can use this organisation for builiding our country. Building roads, bridges, hospitals, and so on . We are in great need of these infra structures. The army man get education and also they follow orders , so they are good human resource. Instead of keeping them inside the barracks, they should be mobilised for development works.