Reply #44: Then call me cold and unfeeling, [View All]

But I would suggest you not try smacking me upside the head, at least not in the physical sense.

Look, you can say that these folks are kids who didn't know any better, but in light of our history in the past fifty years, that arguement doesn't fly. How much more evidence of America's imperial ambitions do you need than Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, and Gulf War I? If you can't see the pattern of pre-emptive, unilateral, illegal, immoral, imperial military action from those examples, then you are blind and stupid beyond hope.

As far as the economic arguement goes, that's BS too. I know personally the costs of a poor kid not going into the armed forces. I was offered good money, and a fine bonus when I was of the age to join, yet viewing our past actions(and this was in the early '80s), I quickly came to the conclusion that morally, the modern army wasn't for me. And I paid the price for that. I was poor, destitute and homeless for well over a year, and didn't get back on my feet until two years after that. I've had to work my ass off to get my education, and achieve the standard of living I enjoy now. Sure, I could have joined up, and actually at the time, I most likely wouldn't have seen armed combat. My life would have been easier, and my personal finacial situation would have been immensely better. But you know, I frankly didn't want to take the chance of having to participate in an illegal and immoral conflict, so I didn't go. And twenty five years later, I would make the same decision all over again, even knowing what I know now. If you are so casual as to sign your morality away to the whims of the federal government, then you are a fool and a dupe.

That said, I feel and grieve for the troops that are overseas now, fighting and dying for the profit of the few. Yes, I think they were foolish to go, but that doesn't mean I wish to see them come to any harm. I would rather that they come home NOW, rather than continue to participate in this mess. I also realize that there is a need for an armed services. But in this day and age, as in the past fifty years, greedy, heartless politicians will take the noble idea of serving ones country and twist it until you are serving the idea of an imerpial Pax Americana. Hopefully the next generation of young potenial enlistees will wake up to this reality and choose to serve in other ways. Sadly, the last generation failed that, and are paying the ultimate price now.