Fuck The Military!

Well, I guess if I'm stuck on these forums forever, I might as well let my true hippie shine, and reveal an opinion of mine that pretty much NO ONE seems to agree with me on. Prepare to be offended, because you probably will be:
I hate the military. With a passion. Do you want to know why?
Because they make a massive business out of killing. They're like an international human hunting company. We throw our children by the millions into their ranks, for vague ideologies like "freedom" and "peace", when all we're really doing is supplying these selfish and monopolistic organizations with more expendable pawns. We pin medals and awards to the ones that kill the most "bad guys", as if murder were a sport. It disgusts me to my very core. And we give them far too much power over us. They can even violate our basic human right of freedom of choice by DRAFTING PEOPLE AGAINST THEIR WILL into the army if they want to! Seriously, HOW is society okay with all of this?! I just don't understand it. This is all wrong. So very wrong... This massive murder machine has to be shut down! Killing is wrong, and the military not only endorses it, but uses it to manipulate the entire world. It's a nightmare, and I wanna wake up.
And I know a lot of people have friends or family in the military, and they feel the need to support them. In fact, my half-brother was in the army, too. And I STILL believe it's wrong. The whole system is wrong. We're sending people to go out and kill each other. Why? Why don't we make a stand and STOP all of this?

 

Lolz, are you American?

You wouldnt be able to sit in Starbucks, sip your Soy Latte and post on your laptop, if it hadnt been for the military over the last couple hundred years.

Or at least youd be speaking spanish or japanese, with either the shitty standard of living south america has....or the better standard of living Japan has

As for doing things against your will, you do it all the time everyday of your life, dont even realise you are doing it

 

Militaries exist out of necessity. They need to draft people because it is rare for enough people to volunteer. If a single country disbands its military and tells the world that it will never fight a war again then that country will be conquered. If every country in the world except one disbanded their militaries then they would all be conquered by the one that didn't. If you could eliminate poverty, racism, xenophobia, ignorance, fear, and all of the other conditions that lead to war then we wouldn't need militaries.

Why don't we make a stand and STOP all of this? Who is we, when and where do we make our stand, against whom and what do we stand, and how do we stop it?

 

Allow me to be more specific: My ideal would be not to abolish all military, but to reform the military from the ground up, with a focus on non-lethal intervention. This isn't the Stone Age where all we have are sticks and stones to beat each other to death with. We have the modern technology to allow us to incapacitate and capture dangerous individuals without killing them, which should be the military's PRIMARY CONCERN: Help, not harm.

 

Sleep-inducing smoke bombs, tranquilizers, tasers, net traps and things of that nature would become the main weapons of my ideal military. Only small firearms would be permitted, and would only be acceptable in extreme situations. Furthermore, all soldiers would be specifically trained to always aim for non-vital targets. If any soldier was found to have knowingly and willingly killed someone, they would be discharged immediately.

 

Firstly, if you are in a kill or be killed situation then you WILL NOT just aim for a leg but for a kill shot.

Secondly, to change the military complex and/or system then you will need to get a consensus Globally to do so; we know that isn't going to happen.

Lastly, the MIC is to well funded and positioned for any change for the better. As it stands now, the only way it will get better, in America that is, is for the Imperialistic mindset to come to a grinding halt. Change through chaos. As for the rest of the world, well perhaps when America stops interfering globally, then the rest of the globe may follow suit as well. That is except Israel but they have painted themselves into a very small corner with nowhere to run behind their "wall".

 

I too am turned off by military culture. At least in America, voluntary military service attracts a certain type of person. Usually poor kids with few other prospects, would-be criminals, and people who feel obligated because they are part of military families. A close friend of mine recently had a "moment of clarity" after basic training, when she realized that some of her peers were truly eager to kill people. Obviously not everyone is like that, and there are some people who genuinely want to defend our freedom or whatever the line is. But anecdotally, those types seem to be the exception. It's a shame, and the amount of money we spend compared to other nations is obscene and (in my opinion) indefensible. I wish it was a more black and white issue, but it's not. It's complex and it would take a very long time and incredible effort to get to the point where the USA could roll back it's military, and become more of a pacifist country.

I think what makes me most uneasy about the military is the ease with which they can manipulates people's minds and thinking. It's been happening forever, but it never ceases to unnerve me. Although, being surprised gives people too much credit, probably. The human mind is quite pliable and adaptable, and we're all a product of whatever conditioning we surround ourselves with.

 

Not entirely true. There are a few countries without militaries, Costa Rica being one of them (which, I have heard anyway, has a pretty good standard of living).

 

Worst anti military rant ever.

 

I get 10% off meals at IHop..

 

I knew someone would call me out on this. Countries that don't have standing armies are usually the types of countries that no one wants to conquer due to lack of strategic resources, or they are some form of protectorate of a larger nation. Or they are just living through some short period of lucky peace.

Police are trained for non-lethal intervention (ideally). The military is intended to handle situations that fall outside of that scope. You are right, this isn't the stone age, we have all kinds of sophisticated means of propelling pieces of metal through those that disagree with us. Unfortunately we still have basically stone age brains. I don't think that we do have the technology to incapacitate and capture dangerous individuals without killing them, at least not in any reliable large scale way. The bad guys often have lots of sophisticated weapons of their own.

How would your suggestions work in the context of WWII? How would they work regarding Russia's current unofficial war in the Ukraine?

As long as there are people willing to try to seize power and subjugate others then militaries are needed. In other words, until almost every aspect of humanity changes we will have militaries and wars.

War is all hell, and militaries are terrible tools. But how do we escape the necessity? I spend a large amount of my free time studying military history. It is actually my favorite subject. But in all of my studies I have not seen any way out of this situation.

And please don't conflate militaries with the soldiers that make them up. Those poor bastards don't get to vote on who they kill or where they fight. My grandfather sure as hell didn't want to fight the Japanese, my great uncles did not volunteer to fight in North Africa, Italy, France, etc.

 

We cannot change the past, WWII didn't have the large-scale non-lethal technology we are capable of producing today (if only we prioritized that sort of technology over increasingly deadlier guns and bombs). But today, we could theoretically invade an enemy stronghold with non-lethal technology. Disable their vehicles/computers with EMPs, gas bomb them all to sleep, send in battalions armed with tranq guns, etc. Instead of "take no prisoners", it would instead be "take ALL of the prisoners!", meaning there would likely be a secondary unit specially trained for the sole purpose of capturing all the incapacitated enemies. Stretchers on drones could even potentially be used to safely remove the unconscious from the battlefield. There are so many non-lethal possibilities that the military just doesn't give half a shit to explore, because killing is "easier". Their disregard for human life is truly terrifying.
And I disagree, the soldiers are just as bad as the military, because they choose to give the military power over them. If your grandfather and great uncle were drafted against their will, they should have refused, and made their stand against the oppression. It may be cruel, but it's the only way to make things change, and I know in my heart that if I was drafted and ordered to kill I would tell my CO to go fuck himself!

 

Where does the funding for any of this come from?

 

Maybe the same funding that's now being used for planes that can't fly?


Just a guess....




I'm not backing the OP on this, but the military is a mess and out of control as it is.

 

Alright, OP can check with whomever invested the money to see if they see eye to eye on this issue.

Shouldn't be too hard to change their minds overnight (or within the span of the second world war and now).

 

Or ever...

 

Awwww... that's... I don't even know.


I am neither for nor against the military when it comes to the most generalized viewpoint. I DO however respect those who serve. Like Tyrson said though, it's a fucking mess.

Like it or not, they fight for our freedom to express our viewpoint, whether it's love or hatred or a mixture of both towards whatever it is they do.

Let's face it, some things we will never know. And it may very well be MUCH more screwed up than we can ever hope to imagine.


I still want to know whatever happened to 'Osama'

 

Your views about technology and warfare are so out of touch with reality I really don't know how to respond. In fact I find it hard to believe that you aren't joking. Regarding the part I quoted though: Don't you think that it was right and good to fight against the Imperial Japanese and Germany? Should we have allowed them to conquer the world?

 

I do not like the current Military Industrial Complex that makes America the attacker and not someone who defends their own border only. Part of this culture is the constant glorifying and praise of the military. For example that movie about the sniper that was made a few years ago. From what I read about that guy he was a psychopath. A lot of soldiers accept they may have to kill but they do not look forward to it. That guy did but somehow he is an American hero because of it.

But I think too many people confuse that with the people who serve in the military. There are a lot of good people and they are doing what they think is right. People like me and the OP do not agree with the foreign conflicts they are in. But it's their job to follow orders. A lot of them could feel the same way.