Military Recruitment
- Thread starter cbrgator
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rbernie wrote:
Sans Authoritas wrote:
rbernie wrote:
Does the military use only voluntary funding and only kill to protect human lives from imminent death?
-Sans Authoritas
Sans Authoritas wrote:
rbernie wrote:
Does the military use only voluntary funding and only kill to protect human lives from imminent death?
-Sans Authoritas
rbernie
Contributing Member
No, it does not. Is there an inference in this statement that participation in the US military is low ground?
rbernie, it would seem that entirely funding one's operations with other people's stolen money and killing those who do not pose an immediate risk to innocent human life is immoral. Knowing this and choosing to perform immoral actions by immoral means is, indeed, choosing the low ground.
-Sans Authoritas
-Sans Authoritas
rbernie
Contributing Member
So what happens when the US military sends humanitarian aid to Myanmar, or parachutes into occupied Normany? Are they sorta maybe on the high ground, being that their mission is helping innocent life but being paid for by stolen money (e.g. taxes)?
The problem with binary thinking is that it's, so, well, binary.
The problem with binary thinking is that it's, so, well, binary.
rbernie, if the OP wants to do nothing but save innocents using moral, voluntarily-collected funds, it sounds like he really wants to join a charity relief organization, not the U.S. military.
Ultimately, the fact that people in the U.S. military sometimes achieve good ends with evil means does not justify its existence.
If I spent my life robbing people at gunpoint to give money to widows and orphans, it would not justify my actions, either.
-Sans Authoritas
Ultimately, the fact that people in the U.S. military sometimes achieve good ends with evil means does not justify its existence.
If I spent my life robbing people at gunpoint to give money to widows and orphans, it would not justify my actions, either.
-Sans Authoritas
Wow, with all the anti-war hate hijacking this thread...it's a good thing we aren't at war and just have 2 SOSO (Stability Operations and Support Operations) going on.
If we are at war...who with? How can whomever we are at war with be defeated? What is the measure of success (treaty-armistice?) Are we truly at war with an emotion (terror?
)
I guess when I was teaching the Afghan Army how to protect itself from foreign invaders who are blowing up their civilian populace in order to enslave them...I was using evil means to do good things?
Was I using evil means to do good things protecting an engineer from a violent terrorist attack as a security contractor in Baghdad?
I don't get it...is self-defense evil? Is protecting civilians from suicide bombers evil means? How about building roads, schools, hospitals...evil means?
If the terrorists who are blowing up innocent people would just stop doing that...well I guess there wouldn't be any "evil" left for our soldiers to do.
If we are at war...who with? How can whomever we are at war with be defeated? What is the measure of success (treaty-armistice?) Are we truly at war with an emotion (terror?
)I guess when I was teaching the Afghan Army how to protect itself from foreign invaders who are blowing up their civilian populace in order to enslave them...I was using evil means to do good things?
Was I using evil means to do good things protecting an engineer from a violent terrorist attack as a security contractor in Baghdad?
I don't get it...is self-defense evil? Is protecting civilians from suicide bombers evil means? How about building roads, schools, hospitals...evil means?
If the terrorists who are blowing up innocent people would just stop doing that...well I guess there wouldn't be any "evil" left for our soldiers to do.
just a quick question from someone who knows nothing about the US military
Can a non-US citizen enlist with the armed forces? or only some branches ?
Can a non-US citizen enlist with the armed forces? or only some branches ?
Enough with the hijacking!
I believe a non-citizen legal resident of the US can enlist, but not a non-resident foreign national.
I believe a non-citizen legal resident of the US can enlist, but not a non-resident foreign national.
crbgator
I want to comment on this since I have direct first hand and second hand knowledge because... drumroll.... i'm a JAG right now in Iraq.
I won't bore you too much other than to suggest you explore an ROTC program to attempt to get the military to help pay for your lawschool. It's quite challenging to get in and the military commitment may be longer. It has recently changed.
I went the route of college/work, lawschool/work, and then legal practice for a few years, then Army. It left me with tremendous work ethic, maturity, experience, and student debt.
JAG is difficult to get in because it's very competitive.
Air Force and Navy have very small JAG numbers and retention is quite high. These are more technical in nature and have very low "Soldier" skill training.
Marines are also a very small group of JAGs and these JAGs go through the same training as all riflemen. And, as I understand, will offer you the least amount of legal experience of the services but more rifleman experience.
I don't know too much about the Coast Guard, so you're on your own.
I'm Army. Excellent Officer Basic Course for the technical skills, and an excellent Soldier/Leadership course. I think very highly of the Army JAG Corp and it has treated me well. I do a lot of legal work from legal research, writing, negotiating... your typical legal stuff. And I went through the same Soldier/Leadership training as other officers (land nav, weapons qual, tactical skills, MOUT, Airborne, Air Assault, medical, etc.). I get outside the wire frequently and do "Soldier" stuff regularly.
Because attorney pay is all over the board in the private sector, it's hard to say whether a JAG pay is comparable. I can say I feel underpaid based on my level of experience and worth.... I suppose that's natural. I felt that way in the private sector too.
If you have any more questions, you can always PM me.
My advice, overall, is to do well in school and stay in tip top shape. Try to take out as few loans as possible because it's easy to go overboard in law school.
I want to comment on this since I have direct first hand and second hand knowledge because... drumroll.... i'm a JAG right now in Iraq.
I won't bore you too much other than to suggest you explore an ROTC program to attempt to get the military to help pay for your lawschool. It's quite challenging to get in and the military commitment may be longer. It has recently changed.
I went the route of college/work, lawschool/work, and then legal practice for a few years, then Army. It left me with tremendous work ethic, maturity, experience, and student debt.
JAG is difficult to get in because it's very competitive.
Air Force and Navy have very small JAG numbers and retention is quite high. These are more technical in nature and have very low "Soldier" skill training.
Marines are also a very small group of JAGs and these JAGs go through the same training as all riflemen. And, as I understand, will offer you the least amount of legal experience of the services but more rifleman experience.
I don't know too much about the Coast Guard, so you're on your own.
I'm Army. Excellent Officer Basic Course for the technical skills, and an excellent Soldier/Leadership course. I think very highly of the Army JAG Corp and it has treated me well. I do a lot of legal work from legal research, writing, negotiating... your typical legal stuff. And I went through the same Soldier/Leadership training as other officers (land nav, weapons qual, tactical skills, MOUT, Airborne, Air Assault, medical, etc.). I get outside the wire frequently and do "Soldier" stuff regularly.
Because attorney pay is all over the board in the private sector, it's hard to say whether a JAG pay is comparable. I can say I feel underpaid based on my level of experience and worth.... I suppose that's natural. I felt that way in the private sector too.
If you have any more questions, you can always PM me.
My advice, overall, is to do well in school and stay in tip top shape. Try to take out as few loans as possible because it's easy to go overboard in law school.
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Yes. Speak with a recruiter. After between 6 months and a year of Active Duty service you can apply for US Citizenship.
Thanks for the quick response. I'll send an e-mail.
First finishing college in belgium, then we'll see. no rotc or comparable program here :/
First finishing college in belgium, then we'll see. no rotc or comparable program here :/
You guess correctly. The means, in this case, are other people's money, taken by violence or the implied threat of violence.
Was I using evil means to do good things protecting an engineer from a violent terrorist attack as a security contractor in Baghdad?
Self-defense is perfectly legitimate. Let the Afghanis and Iraqis defend themselves.
Protecting civilians from suicide bombers is not a "means," it is an end. At its root, the means used is the money stolen from other people.
In other words, "People kill innocents, so the U.S. military must be deployed wherever this happens (except Sudan, where people aren't blown up, but exponentially more humans are butchered with conventional means,) using money taken from innocents by violence or threat of violence, in order to protect them. Because a U.S. military presence all over the world will make those people and the people who live in America safer."
Right.
Has it ever occurred to you that the Romans thought they were doing a great thing by traipsing across the globe, building roads and occupying other countries? The Roman empire, of course, was not crushed from without. It could not support the weight of its foreign excursions. Monetary debasement to pay for their foreign excursions was rampant (just as it is now.)
You cannot stop determined men from accomplishing what they want by occupying a country with troops. The resistance functioned well enough for years in France, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and Finland. No matter what the German war machine did, it could not stop the resistance. And the "insurgents" perennially rose up to kill the occupying Germans. Do you really think the U.S. military will fare better? Do you really think that somehow Americans are safer because there are over 700 U.S. government military bases in over 60 countries across the world?
So the U.S. military builds concrete walls to keep sectarian neighborhoods apart over in Iraq, in an effort to stop violence. Laughable. They will never stop fighting until they want to stop fighting. And their desire to fight will not be influenced negatively by the presence of an outside third party.
-Sans Authoritas
rbernie
Contributing Member
I'm sorry. I really should know better.
It's just that the prospect of watching Sans Authoritas tell every American who's been a servicemember since Tojo was a baby that their service was immoral because their kit and their salary was paid by tax dollars is simply too rich to ignore.
Dang - like taking candy from a baby.
Well I do appreciate all of the input relevant to my question. Sounds like I have a whole lot to consider and have some serious decisions ahead of me. To those who are serving and have served, thank you for that service. Perhaps I will be a fellow veteran alongside you one day.
boris barowski,
I have known several people who were enlisted in the US Army and who were not citizens. Depending on the mos you want you may be limited by your ability to get a security clearance.
I have known several people who were enlisted in the US Army and who were not citizens. Depending on the mos you want you may be limited by your ability to get a security clearance.
cbrgator,
I spent 4 years in the Navy, joined the Army Reserve while I was finishing my degree, and then joined the Coast Guard with the intention of going to OCS after several years of enlisted service. I decided not to apply for OCS since my eyes were not good enough for flight school (the requirements have changed since then) and to keep on with my career as an enlisted man.
Not once have I ever regretted my decision. The biggest problem I have now is trying to figure out what I want to do when the Coast Guard forces me out the door. Go to law school and get your degree. Just because you pass the bar does not mean the only field for you is law.
Some of the other stuff in this thread is just noise that is very hard to ignore. See my sig line for how I feel about it
Does anybody have an emoticon with fingers stuck in ears that I can use whenever Sans goes off on his tirades about how tax money is "stolen" and the military is evil?
San Authoritas,
You have been asked several times but I'll put it to you one more time. Have you served even one day in the Armed Forces of the United States of America? I'll be patiently waiting for you answer. Please keep it to a simple "yes" or "no".
I spent 4 years in the Navy, joined the Army Reserve while I was finishing my degree, and then joined the Coast Guard with the intention of going to OCS after several years of enlisted service. I decided not to apply for OCS since my eyes were not good enough for flight school (the requirements have changed since then) and to keep on with my career as an enlisted man.
Not once have I ever regretted my decision. The biggest problem I have now is trying to figure out what I want to do when the Coast Guard forces me out the door. Go to law school and get your degree. Just because you pass the bar does not mean the only field for you is law.
Some of the other stuff in this thread is just noise that is very hard to ignore. See my sig line for how I feel about it
Does anybody have an emoticon with fingers stuck in ears that I can use whenever Sans goes off on his tirades about how tax money is "stolen" and the military is evil?San Authoritas,
You have been asked several times but I'll put it to you one more time. Have you served even one day in the Armed Forces of the United States of America? I'll be patiently waiting for you answer. Please keep it to a simple "yes" or "no".
dm1333
I didn't notice being asked.
No.
Why do you ask? Does that fact somehow render untrue anything that I have said?
I'm not a robber, either. But I know that making my living by taking other people's money by violence or the threat of violence, for any reason, no matter how good, is wrong. I don't have to have been a robber to understand that.
I do understand that you and many other people who have fought for the U.S. government consider yourselves a member of a long, glorious line of men who "served," although you may not necessarily think through who you actually served, or what your service actually accomplished, but rather have a vague, proud and inaccurate notion that you somehow served the well-being of your neighbors merely by being in the U.S. military's employ. And that perhaps you believe, through some bizzare abuse of logic, that your "service" somehow kept American citizens from having to speak German, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean or Arabic.
Nor do I have to have lived through over 9,000 years of human history to recognize that taxation-funded governments have caused more violence than they have ever prevented.
Nor does my status of not working for a government change that fact.
-Sans Authoritas
I didn't notice being asked.
No.
Why do you ask? Does that fact somehow render untrue anything that I have said?
I'm not a robber, either. But I know that making my living by taking other people's money by violence or the threat of violence, for any reason, no matter how good, is wrong. I don't have to have been a robber to understand that.
I do understand that you and many other people who have fought for the U.S. government consider yourselves a member of a long, glorious line of men who "served," although you may not necessarily think through who you actually served, or what your service actually accomplished, but rather have a vague, proud and inaccurate notion that you somehow served the well-being of your neighbors merely by being in the U.S. military's employ. And that perhaps you believe, through some bizzare abuse of logic, that your "service" somehow kept American citizens from having to speak German, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean or Arabic.
Nor do I have to have lived through over 9,000 years of human history to recognize that taxation-funded governments have caused more violence than they have ever prevented.
Nor does my status of not working for a government change that fact.
-Sans Authoritas
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Well buddy, that sure sounded like somebody was asking if you had ever served in the military?
Sans Authoritas wrote:
I have actually thought who I actually serve and what my service has accomplished, and I don't have a "vague, proud and inaccurate notion that you somehow served the well-being of your neighbors".
I won't quote you the statistics about lives and property saved and drugs intercepted by the Coast Guard last year. Or bring up the 33,000 people the Coast Guard evacuated from New Orleans during Katrina and Rita. I'll stick with what I have personally done.
I saved the lives of two recreational fishermen who left Neah Bay, WA. in 1996 and got caught unprepared in a gale. While stationed in Oregon I saved the lives of 3 recreational fisherman in a small boat that lost power and was drifting out across a breaking bar. In California I took a power boat in tow as it drifted between two large wash rocks and was about to hit a third rock. All of the five passengers were over the age of 65 and none of them would have survived a capsizing in those seas and that water. The next time you want to make a snide comment about "service" and the military why don't you just keep quiet instead.
Sans Authoritas wrote:
So what you are saying is that tax dollars are "stolen" from you and other citizens by the threat of violence? Here is a hint. Nobody is forcing you to stay in this country. I used to think you were an intelligent guy but after listening to statements like that one and your statements about police forces and the private sector I've become convinced you are either the worlds largest troll or you're heading down the same road as Ted Kaczynski.
San Authoritas wrote:
But all the rest of us heard was:
The resitance functioned so well in France, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Finland and all through the rest of Europe that Germany was firmly in control of western Europe right up until June of 1944. The places where the resitance was really effective at tying up troops, such as Greece and France, was due in large part to the brave men who parachuted into those countries to help the resistance. And putting the US armed forces into the same context as the Nazis? You really have gone off the deep end.
Sebastian the Ibis
Member
I just graduated from law school and was looking at JAG myself. Coast Guard JAG is quite difficult to get into, at least in Miami. A good friend of mine, cum laude, moot court champion, DOJ intern and friend of local US Attorney was unable to get it. The guy who got the spot was an active duty CG officer at the base who was going to law school through some program - (I think this is probably what you need to get into.) However if you can get CG Jag do it. You get to actually work on all sorts of legal issues that can be applied when you roll out into practice: marine pollution, maritime law/accidents etc. You can also get sent over to the DOJ and be a special AUSA and prosecute the CG's cases in Federal Court. The Army JAG officer/recruiter I interviewed with would not answer a straight question to save her life. Informally I have not found anyone that can talk to me about army JAG either.
If you want government, but not especially military check out the Miami Securities and Exchange commission office. I know they are looking for someone with an accounting background and who can do financial modeling- at least thats what they told me a couple weeks ago. That + a good law degree will get you hired on the spot at any Wall Street firm.
If you want government, but not especially military check out the Miami Securities and Exchange commission office. I know they are looking for someone with an accounting background and who can do financial modeling- at least thats what they told me a couple weeks ago. That + a good law degree will get you hired on the spot at any Wall Street firm.
Sans Authoritas wrote:
First, the Coast Guard is only considered a part of the military in a time of war, but if Those Who Know Better consider this indeterminate "War On Drugs" or "War On Terror" to be "a time of war," so be it.
Second, did I ever say that saving lives or making people free was evil in itself? No, I said that doing good by evil means does not justify the good end. I cannot stomp on a child's head to get rid of his headache. A wildly disproportionate comparison? Absolutely. Is the logic still sound? Absolutely.
How about the "servicemen" who served society by confiscating firearms door-to-door? Did many others help distribute food and water? Certainly. But there will be agencies such as the Red Cross to fill the gap in providing help when the violence-based monopoly of your government "services" has collapsed.
As for the glorious war on drugs, how many people have you helped kill by prosecuting "the war on inanimate chemical substances," resulting in the violence made possible and lucrative through drug prohibition? The 1920's was a decade of gang violence and other crime, not because people drank alcohol, but because alcohol was prohibited by the government. The bottle-breakers who strongly believed in what they were doing, the predecessors to the modern day ATF, did nothing to actually reduce crime, but rather, they helped foment it.
The war on drugs contributes to this violence. You will never destroy the demand by inderdicting the supply. You will only make the drug trade more competitive and violent. If I were to thank you, it would be to thank you for your service of helping create more violence on the streets. I will not thank you for that.
If the Coast Guard didn't exist, would those men be dead? Or would there instead have been free-market and volunteer organizations to rescue people, as there were before people felt the government had to do everything?
Sans Authoritas wrote:
As I said in another post, what planet do you suppose I should move to, where I am not "voluntarily" forced to give up over 20 percent of my income to support a tax-funded, violence-ensured monopoly?
If you peacefully lived in your farmhouse, and someone came up and said, "Move out or I will forcibly throw you in prison," would you consider that threat to be voluntarily-heeded? That is what the government does every year. It's called "eminent domain."
The entire geographic area and everyone who lives in it is considered "eminent domain" by the government. Do they have a right to force you to support their monopoly, just because you peacefully live on a plot of land? Do you really consider it voluntary, because if I don't choose to be thrown in prison, I can move to another planet where nobody thinks they have a right to force me to subsidize their activities?
Ted Kaczynski was irrational and chose to get notoriety and impose his views by violence. I am neither irrational nor violent, nor do I have any delusions that people can be forced to believe anything, as it would be a contradiction in terms.
Sans Authoritas wrote:
Yes. When one's ears are clogged with hearing a lifetime of half-truths and lies, the truth does sound like nonsense. That is why I cannot fault your rudeness.
The resistance functioned as it did only because a few people with some guts actually stood up to the invaders, while the majority accepted the presence of men who believed they had a right to run their lives were using violence to impose their wills. Yes, some people parachuted in, and also dropped supplies. But materials do not win a war. The ideas people believe are what effect change. Nobody fights a war without an idea in his head. Nobody would ever fight an unjust war unless he thought it was a good thing to do.
As for comparing the U.S. forces to Nazis? So help me. That's one thing we can all agree on. "Nazis were bad." Like the Nazis were some fluke of human nature at its worst, and nobody ever was like them or ever will be like them to any degree. Because the Nazis weren't human: they were bloodsucking half-goblin demons with red eyes that were spawned in the pits of hell, and came to earth knowing that everything they did was pure evil.
Nonsense! The German soldiers and Nazis who perpetrated their atrocities were men like any other: they actually believed they were doıng something good, just like every group of men with rifles and uniforms who feel pretty good about themselves and about what they are doing. Do you think that your average 17-year old German boy woke up one day and said, "I think I want to serve the Reich, and commit mass-murder by slaughtering innocent Jews and 7 million non-Jews?" Never! But it sure worked out that way, didn't it? All because they got caught up in a "patriotic" fervor. Because they thought they were "serving." Am I saying that your average WWII dogface Willie and Joe were shoveling Jews into furnaces? No! Am I saying that the average soldier in Viet Nam was raping women and burning villages? No! What I am saying is that no one has a right to take and use other people's money by violence. What I am saying is that most men in war have no idea what they are fighting for in reality. Ask any man who's been in combat, and he'll tell you that he believed he was fighting A) for his buddies and B) to go home. He would not be fighting for either of those primary goals if he had said to himself, "If I join the military, I will be living off of other people's coerced money, and will likely be be fighting people I've never met, who probably pose no threat to me or my neighbors, for a bunch of politicians who stand to profit, while those who are not in power will suffer tremendously by the loss of lives, property and souls."
If you want to join the military and think you are de facto "serving" your neighbors, you'd better think long and hard about the reality of the situations you may find yourself in, with a rifle in your sweaty hands and a chain of command barking orders into your confused ears. And you'd better consider the reality of what you are really accomplishing by fighting, not just what you believe you are fighting for, despite how good that idea may make you feel about yourself.
-Sans Authoritas
First, the Coast Guard is only considered a part of the military in a time of war, but if Those Who Know Better consider this indeterminate "War On Drugs" or "War On Terror" to be "a time of war," so be it.
Second, did I ever say that saving lives or making people free was evil in itself? No, I said that doing good by evil means does not justify the good end. I cannot stomp on a child's head to get rid of his headache. A wildly disproportionate comparison? Absolutely. Is the logic still sound? Absolutely.
How about the "servicemen" who served society by confiscating firearms door-to-door? Did many others help distribute food and water? Certainly. But there will be agencies such as the Red Cross to fill the gap in providing help when the violence-based monopoly of your government "services" has collapsed.
As for the glorious war on drugs, how many people have you helped kill by prosecuting "the war on inanimate chemical substances," resulting in the violence made possible and lucrative through drug prohibition? The 1920's was a decade of gang violence and other crime, not because people drank alcohol, but because alcohol was prohibited by the government. The bottle-breakers who strongly believed in what they were doing, the predecessors to the modern day ATF, did nothing to actually reduce crime, but rather, they helped foment it.
The war on drugs contributes to this violence. You will never destroy the demand by inderdicting the supply. You will only make the drug trade more competitive and violent. If I were to thank you, it would be to thank you for your service of helping create more violence on the streets. I will not thank you for that.
If the Coast Guard didn't exist, would those men be dead? Or would there instead have been free-market and volunteer organizations to rescue people, as there were before people felt the government had to do everything?
Sans Authoritas wrote:
As I said in another post, what planet do you suppose I should move to, where I am not "voluntarily" forced to give up over 20 percent of my income to support a tax-funded, violence-ensured monopoly?
If you peacefully lived in your farmhouse, and someone came up and said, "Move out or I will forcibly throw you in prison," would you consider that threat to be voluntarily-heeded? That is what the government does every year. It's called "eminent domain."
The entire geographic area and everyone who lives in it is considered "eminent domain" by the government. Do they have a right to force you to support their monopoly, just because you peacefully live on a plot of land? Do you really consider it voluntary, because if I don't choose to be thrown in prison, I can move to another planet where nobody thinks they have a right to force me to subsidize their activities?
Ted Kaczynski was irrational and chose to get notoriety and impose his views by violence. I am neither irrational nor violent, nor do I have any delusions that people can be forced to believe anything, as it would be a contradiction in terms.
Sans Authoritas wrote:
Yes. When one's ears are clogged with hearing a lifetime of half-truths and lies, the truth does sound like nonsense. That is why I cannot fault your rudeness.
The resistance functioned as it did only because a few people with some guts actually stood up to the invaders, while the majority accepted the presence of men who believed they had a right to run their lives were using violence to impose their wills. Yes, some people parachuted in, and also dropped supplies. But materials do not win a war. The ideas people believe are what effect change. Nobody fights a war without an idea in his head. Nobody would ever fight an unjust war unless he thought it was a good thing to do.
As for comparing the U.S. forces to Nazis? So help me. That's one thing we can all agree on. "Nazis were bad." Like the Nazis were some fluke of human nature at its worst, and nobody ever was like them or ever will be like them to any degree. Because the Nazis weren't human: they were bloodsucking half-goblin demons with red eyes that were spawned in the pits of hell, and came to earth knowing that everything they did was pure evil.
Nonsense! The German soldiers and Nazis who perpetrated their atrocities were men like any other: they actually believed they were doıng something good, just like every group of men with rifles and uniforms who feel pretty good about themselves and about what they are doing. Do you think that your average 17-year old German boy woke up one day and said, "I think I want to serve the Reich, and commit mass-murder by slaughtering innocent Jews and 7 million non-Jews?" Never! But it sure worked out that way, didn't it? All because they got caught up in a "patriotic" fervor. Because they thought they were "serving." Am I saying that your average WWII dogface Willie and Joe were shoveling Jews into furnaces? No! Am I saying that the average soldier in Viet Nam was raping women and burning villages? No! What I am saying is that no one has a right to take and use other people's money by violence. What I am saying is that most men in war have no idea what they are fighting for in reality. Ask any man who's been in combat, and he'll tell you that he believed he was fighting A) for his buddies and B) to go home. He would not be fighting for either of those primary goals if he had said to himself, "If I join the military, I will be living off of other people's coerced money, and will likely be be fighting people I've never met, who probably pose no threat to me or my neighbors, for a bunch of politicians who stand to profit, while those who are not in power will suffer tremendously by the loss of lives, property and souls."
If you want to join the military and think you are de facto "serving" your neighbors, you'd better think long and hard about the reality of the situations you may find yourself in, with a rifle in your sweaty hands and a chain of command barking orders into your confused ears. And you'd better consider the reality of what you are really accomplishing by fighting, not just what you believe you are fighting for, despite how good that idea may make you feel about yourself.
-Sans Authoritas
I think its great the guy is interested in serving.
I spent over a decade in military intelligence and never once regretted it even till this day. Not even after Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. Been there done that. I did regret leaving to finish up my education. Alot of posters say to get a job that will relate to your degree and thats fine but here is another option. Go Intel. I guarantee you this much, if you want to do something that will shape the way you see and experience the world, look no further.
You want to come back and really understand how great of a country we live in? It won't take you long at all. Just try not to laugh at those who think they know whats happening and condemn this nation for they are just blind fools.
Good luck CBRGATOR on what you decide to join.
I spent over a decade in military intelligence and never once regretted it even till this day. Not even after Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. Been there done that. I did regret leaving to finish up my education. Alot of posters say to get a job that will relate to your degree and thats fine but here is another option. Go Intel. I guarantee you this much, if you want to do something that will shape the way you see and experience the world, look no further.
You want to come back and really understand how great of a country we live in? It won't take you long at all. Just try not to laugh at those who think they know whats happening and condemn this nation for they are just blind fools.
Good luck CBRGATOR on what you decide to join.
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