thinking about joining the army

"Be a master to your will and a slave to your conscience".

 

I think this part of the article sums it up pretty well:

"When you have a war that's not supported by the American people, you're not going to get the right people to join the American Army," said Lawrence Korb, assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs during the Reagan administration, now a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress in Washington

How could you? Anyone who says " yes, i'll go fight in this totally unsupported war" is either decieved, brainwashed, (conditioned to lack critical thinking skills) or just doesn't care. Of course, there are a huge number of the above catagories in the army at any time, unsupported war or not, but about now that number has to be much much larger.

 

Tok ur, the moral implications of joining aside, do you really think it's a good idea for a person with mental health issues, including an anger problem to go into an extremely stressful environment where, trust me, you will get your buttons pushed, you will be around at least a few serious assholes, and become subject to a "justice" system (UCMJ) that cannot be trusted IMO not to totally railroad a low ranking member who snaps or who's judgment is compromised by the combination of extreme stress or provocation and a preexisting mental/emotional problem? And I'm just talking about basic training! Let alone what you would deal with if you go into a combat zone. I don't want to see you end up in a military prison because the military has got so stupid and so desperate for recruits that it is now recruiting unstable people not suited for the things those people will automatically be put through as part of army training.

I still vividly recall getting called to formation in the middle of the night and seeing a guy i was somewhat acquainted with brought up to the front with the top of his head chewed and bleeding from guys practically trying to scalp him with their razors, simply because he was someone who didn't quite fit the mold well enough, --he had told me at one point that he had emotional problems but had managed to get in anyway---and because the drill Sargent had at some point made a suggestive comment about him "getting a haircut" to the rest of the troop. I later heard a drill Sargent say in front of everyone that he thought "it was kind of funny."

That guy had done NOTHING wrong...he just didn't quite fit in with the rest , so he was singled out and persecuted. I was too to some extent simply because i had found myself, for whatever reason, completely unable to sleep in that environment and the sleep deprivation affected my mental functioning, caused me to sometimes fall asleep on my feet and fall down, and even got to where i hallucinated. Rather than recognize the problem for what it was in any way, it was treated as me just being too undisciplined.

I'm not just trying to scare you here, i'm telling you what i experienced, and from all i've heard from a lot of others, my experience was not unique. Just because the army now thinks that it's ok to recruit people with mental/emotional problems, (assuming for the moment that it does, as you say,) that doesn't mean that it is.

 

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who
determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a
democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no
voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you
have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials