It is interesting how in this conflict the most effective warriors are mercenaries. Very retro. Almost medieval.
Conscription means you do not need anything to lure people to join, it also means that you only get the people who could not, for some reason get out of it.
They feared their generals would stage a coup (gee I wonder why they would think that?) and so kept the military down and removed any military leaders they found to be to popular, to effective, to smart, to political and so forth.