74 replies to this topic

[JohnWayneWasANazi]

Weird, my mom would probably kill me if I didn't go to college.

[Floyd]

in some places, like the south, it is considered inappropriate for people to go to college if their parents didn't because then you are trying to be better than your parents. From what I have read about antiwar's parents, this would not surprise me. I have the opposite problem, my parents want me to go to college so I can get a high paying job and pay for them to live so they can retire to make up for all those years when they had to pay for me to live.

[2to9]

JohnWayneWasANazi, on 02 August 2011 - 09:00 PM, said:

Don't. If you join the army, you will inevitably have to kill or be killed. Do you:
1. think you can handle that? Killing another poor SOB who was just doing what he thought was right?
2. really want to kill for the United States government?

I understand it's often a way out of a shitty situation. But it's not worth it.

   If you aren't that bright and get a shitty ASVAB score which is used to see what jobs you qualify for then you have less options in terms of jobs and you will likely get stuck in 0311 which is infantry or a related field and you may have to see direct combat.
But the better score you get the more jobs you qualify for and you have a wide range of jobs. This can range from being a clerk behind a desk, to vehicle maintenance, to avionics, to logistics.
   Not every job you do in the Marines is just infantry and killing there's a lot more than that. Although every Marine is a rifleman which means no matter what your, job is you are basically trained in combat so you can defend yourself if the situation arises. In the Marines you attend 13 weeks of boot camp, then 5 weeks of MCT (Marine Combat Training) then go off to your specialty school for your specific job.

[JohnWayneWasANazi]

2to9, on 03 August 2011 - 09:28 PM, said:

If you aren't that bright and get a shitty ASVAB score which is used to see what jobs you qualify for then you have less options in terms of jobs and you will likely get stuck in 0311 which is infantry or a related field and you may have to see direct combat.
But the better score you get the more jobs you qualify for and you have a wide range of jobs. This can range from being a clerk behind a desk, to vehicle maintenance, to avionics, to logistics.
   Not every job you do in the Marines is just infantry and killing there's a lot more than that. Although every Marine is a rifleman which means no matter what your, job is you are basically trained in combat so you can defend yourself if the situation arises. In the Marines you attend 13 weeks of boot camp, then 5 weeks of MCT (Marine Combat Training) then go off to your specialty school for your specific job.

So you will be helping people get killed? Will you sleep better at night?

[Sammysaint]

Yeah I don't care what way you put it, I'd rather work somewhere like mcdonalds than for my country's armed forces, of any kind.

[John]

JohnWayneWasANazi, on 29 July 2011 - 10:12 AM, said:

I believe community colleges accept 100% of students. Then you can get your grades up and transfer to a real college. I know someone who got C's and D's in high school, went to community college, got good grades, and went to Harvard.

This. Anyone with a diploma or GED can get into most community colleges. And there are placement tests, and they will basically accept you no matter what you get, though put you in remedial classes to start if it's low.

[John]

Black Cat, on 02 August 2011 - 03:41 PM, said:

Apart from the question of whether it's reasonable to join the army - women cannot join the Marines as actual fighting soldiers? I always thought, the U.S. army were completely gender mainstreamed. At least on paper.

The US rule on paper is that women are supposed to fight, but they often end up doing because they will have a non-combat role while attached to a unit that gets thrust into combat, so they will have to fight then.

[Gibby]

JohnWayneWasANazi, on 04 August 2011 - 01:31 PM, said:

So you will be helping people get killed? Will you sleep better at night?

Do you honestly think that this will have any effect on him?

Good luck to him, say I.

[2to9]

Gibby, on 04 August 2011 - 05:10 PM, said:

Do you honestly think that this will have any effect on him?

Good luck to him, say I.

Thank you Gibby

[JohnWayneWasANazi]

The military is a terrible, terrible thing. They use you, abuse you, throw you out before you get too stale. All of a sudden you go home and you can't adjust. Some vets I know with PTSD forget how to breathe occasionally. They can't be around other people and they can't let other people close to them. I know people who's friends have come back in body bags (or at least the parts they could find after the IED came back). And that person's family and friends will never get over it, never be alright.

Sure, there are less extreme cases where people don't see combat, but you're still part of an evil machine. You're helping people on both sides get killed. Why? For money. Everything the government does is, in one way or another, for money. And I always wonder how those people who facilitate death and destruction sleep at night.

I don't want to blame soldiers. I want to blame the leadership of the military and government. But you are educated, and you have so many resources at hand! You don't need the military.

[Skaz]

JohnWayneWasANazi, on 04 August 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

I don't want to blame soldiers. I want to blame the leadership of the military and government.

I think soldiers have to take some, if not most of the blame, since they are the ones actually carrying out the atrocities. People need to take responsibility for their actions and stop hiding behind phrases like "just following orders". But I agree with what you're saying; why would one want to help such an evil organisation on any level?

[Gibby]

I reckon that it's a lot easier to judge them when we haven't been in their shoes. Then again, I work in the oil industry and that's probably worse than any military

[John]

Since we're talking about soldiers, I just want to add something - if any of you ever expect a true, legit revolution, you're going to need the majority of soldiers on your side, against the government.

[JohnWayneWasANazi]

Ryan Harvey wrote a really great, really lengthy essay on soldiers and the anti-war movement:
http://voiceshakes.w...r-just-ignored/

[Jaade!]

JohnWayneWasANazi, on 04 August 2011 - 10:36 PM, said:

All of a sudden you go home and you can't adjust. Some vets I know with PTSD forget how to breathe occasionally. They can't be around other people and they can't let other people close to them. I know people who's friends have come back in body bags (or at least the parts they could find after the IED came back). And that person's family and friends will never get over it, never be alright.

I think this is the part people ignore the most.. the amount of people who come back mentally ill and can't get any help for it is insane. It certainly does nothing for your own mental health, I too know of people who have such bad mental health issues as a product of the military that they can barely function in our society.


Also in regards to the parents and university thing - it was the cost that made my mum dislike the idea.. I'm not sure she realised how much help you can get with loans etc at first, I can't say she particularly likes that I'm in 20 grand of debt now like but heey. None of my family had ever been to university before, and I think they were quite overwhelmed by everything that came with it. They've never been so happy as when I graduated though, I had a lot of support.