Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Armok]

I don't like war, probably more because the resources wasted than the direct harm inflicted. The sufering from war is as far as I know negligible compared to disease, ageing, starvation, etc. But the money (or more accurately, the resources and labour those little pieces of paper or bits represent) could have been used to fight those greater evils.

Reasons for joining the military is being evil OR being stupid OR being brainwashed OR being desperate. Knowing Strife he's in the brainwashed category, and thus cannot be blamed any more than if someone had made bolts from his bones.

[Realmfighter]

No Armok, it is you who is brainwashed.

And then Armok became a hater of the military.

[Urist Imiknorris]

But the money (or more accurately, the resources and labour those little pieces of paper or bits represent) could have been used to fight those greater evils.

Or the monies could go to getting us out of the economic shithole we fell in because we failed a financial spot check.

[Heron TSG]

Reasons for joining the military is being evil OR being stupid OR being brainwashed OR being desperate. Knowing Strife he's in the brainwashed category, and thus cannot be blamed any more than if someone had made bolts from his bones.

So now wanting to protect your country from harm means that you're brainwashed?

[Creaca]

And yet the resources being spent in wars also creates jobs and opportunitys for other people. Hell, if you look back in history, the greatest scientific leaps made are due to conflict and/or war.

Reasons for joining the military is being evil OR being stupid OR being brainwashed OR being desperate.

Firstly, not sure what you mean by being evil being a reason to join the military. Could you elaborate on that bit?

Stupid is pretty strait forward, if a little vague.

Brainwashed has me a little confused. You don't mean real brainwashing, I understand that much. I'm assuming you're using a nice emotionally charged buzzword for people who read Biased Right Wing News as opposed to Biased Left Wing News.

Desperation could cover anyone though. You might as well have put "Other" in it's place. I mean, do any of the reasons people join the military count as real desperation, or are you just talking about people who join the military because it offers some advantages?

[Footkerchief]

Reasons for joining the military is being evil OR being stupid OR being brainwashed OR being desperate.

Firstly, not sure what you mean by being evil being a reason to join the military. Could you elaborate on that bit?

Most likely: knowing what it's like to kill people and wanting to do it anyway.

[Leafsnail]

I don't mind having government money spent on equipment for the soldiers who are actually fighting on the front line, or vehicles that can be used to support them, but I do not like having large amounts of money spent on stuff that'll never be used.  Example - the two new aircraft carriers being built in the UK.  Seriously, how likely are we to ever go to war with a serious naval power?  What use is an aircraft carrier in counter insurgency/ counter piracy?  Couldn't the money be better spent elsewhere, such as providing decent body armor?

[Aqizzar]

Aircraft carriers are tremendously useful in just about any military operation (or relief effort for that matter) within 200 miles of ocean because it can serve as a mobile base without having to actually sit around in the area in question.  America's aircraft carriers are in constant operation, most of them in the Indian Ocean as waystations to Iraq (not so much Afghanistan because of airspace problems).

[Creaca]

Most likely: knowing what it's like to kill people and wanting to do it anyway.

Knowing what it's like as having killed before or knowing what it's like as in understanding the morality of ending a life? I mean, I've never seen a report about a serial killer who was a war vet. Also from what I understand gang bangers normally use the war as a means to escape a life of killing.

As for wanting to kill, man, that could fill a thread on it's lonesome. Suffice to say, I'd much rather have an army of people willing to kill for their country than an army of people willing to die for it.

[Leafsnail]

I believe the new ones planned aren't set to be deployed anywhere, but true.

[Cthulhu]

Remember who said the original Evil/Brainwashed/Desperate quote and it all makes a bit more sense.

[Footkerchief]

As for wanting to kill, man, that could fill a thread on it's lonesome. Suffice to say, I'd much rather have an army of people willing to kill for their country than an army of people willing to die for it.

Yes, that is more or less the point of having a military.  One might even call it a necessary evil!

[G-Flex]

As for wanting to kill, man, that could fill a thread on it's lonesome. Suffice to say, I'd much rather have an army of people willing to kill for their country than an army of people willing to die for it.

If you're willing to kill other people for your cause, you have to expect people to try killing you in return. It just doesn't make sense not to.

Oh, and there have been serial killers who were military veterans before. War fucks people up. I thought that was obvious. Vietnam veterans had boatloads of problems coming out of there. You also have to consider the atrocities that some people wind up committing during a war. The military (and sometimes individual soldiers) gets away with a lot of stuff sometimes, and often a wartime environment isn't exactly going to improve someone's sense of the value of human life, especially if they're there to kill people and dehumanize the opposition (which is often a requirement, or at least helps, for being okay to kill them).


I would view joining the military with much greater regard if the US military weren't currently doing what it's been doing, which I simply can't support or respect. Of course, I don't blame the soldiers for that, especially considering how many people join up because they aren't sure what they want to do with their lives, and how brutal and opportunistic their recruiters are.

[Luke_Prowler]

While I am against war, I cannot find any fault in those who wish to fight for their country, for they are much braver than I (heck, if the draft get revived, I'll be in Canada).

[Urist Imiknorris]

Remember who said the original Evil/Brainwashed/Desperate quote and it all makes a bit more sense.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BloodKnight