>>>>

>>>>>From former soldiers, actually.

>>>
>>> Recruiters lie - their job is to convince you to join the military. Like
>>> any
>>> dishonest salesman, they will tell you anything that they think you want
>>> to
>>> hear.
>>>
>>> High-tech skills the army teaches you are rarely transferrable to
>>> civilian
>>> jobs
>>>
>>> Here are some questions to consider before you enlist:
>>>
>>> * If the military is such a great opportunity, why are there military
>>> members who have to use foodstamps to feed their families?
>>>
>>> * Why do people of color represent 1/3 of all enlisted people, but only
>>> 1/8
>>> of all officers?
>>>
>>> * Why do 65%% of military personnel who pay $100 each month into the GI
>>> Bill
>>> receive nothing?
>>>
>>> * Why are 1/3 of all homeless people veterans?
>>>
>>> * If military "high-tech" job training is so great, why do only 12%% of
>>> male
>>> recruits and 6%% of female recruits ever use their military training in a
>>> civilian job?
>>>
>>> * Why are rapes and other assaults on women an on-going crisis in the
>>> military?
>>>
>>> * What's the point of participating in the GI Bill when you can actually
>>> receive more money by applying for Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, and
>>> other
>>> sources of financial aid?
>>>
>>> * Why does the government ask us to "support the troops" while it cuts
>>> benefits for Veterans?
>>>
>>> * Why hasn't the government come clean about Gulf War Syndrome and the
>>> ongoing health problems of veterans, including chronic illnesses and
>>> birth
>>> defects?
>>>

>>
>> Did *you* ever serve in a capacity other than as a failed Cub Scout?
>> Doubtful.

>
> Maybe you'd rather hear it from a Vietnam Vet: 'Wars seem important at
> the
> time, but they usually aren't. Five years later, they are history. About
> sixty thousand GIs died in Vietnam. We lost. Nothing happened. It was a
> stupid war for nothing. Today the guys who lost faces and legs and
> internal
> organs back then are just freaks. Nobody gives a damn about them, and
> nobody
> will give a damn about you. A war is a politician's toy, but your
> wheelchair
> is forever.'
>
>
> A Grand Adventure
>
> Except That it isn't
>
> Fred Reed
>
> A friend recently asked me what I would tell a young man thinking about
> enlisting in the military. (He had in mind his son.) I would tell him
> this,
> which I wish someone had told me:
>
> Kid, you are being suckered. You are being used. You need to think
> carefully
> before signing that enlistment contract.
>
> First, notice that the men who want to send you to die were draft-dodgers.
> President Bush was of military age during Vietnam, but he sat out the war
> in
> the Air National Guard. The Guard was then a common way of avoiding
> combat.
> Bush could do it because he was a rich kid who went to Yale, and his
> family
> had connections.
>
> He dodged, but he wants you to go.
>
> Vice President Cheney, also of military age during Vietnam, also didn't
> go.
> Why? When asked by the press, he said, "I had other priorities." In other
> words, he was too important to risk his precious self overseas. He dodged,
> but wants you to go.
>
> If you take the time to investigate, you will always find this pattern.
> The
> rich and influential avoid combat. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton do not
> send
> young men to Iraq. The editors at magazines that support the war, National
> Review for example, didn't fight. They are happy to let you go, though.
> The
> reason for the All Volunteer military was to let the smart and rich avoid
> service and instead send kids from middle-class and blue-collar families.
> It
> works.
>
> In talking to recruiters, you need to understand what you are up against.
> You are probably nineteen or twenty years old, full of piss and vinegar as
> we used to say, just starting to know the world. Which means that you
> don't
> yet know it. (Do you know, for example, what countries border Iraq?)
>
> You are up against a government that hires high-powered ad agencies and
> psychologists to figure out how to lure you into the military. Over many
> years they have done surveys and studies on the weaknesses of young males
> to
> find out what will get them to join. They know that young men, the ones
> that
> are worth anything anyway, want to prove themselves, want adventure, want
> to
> show what they can do. Everything a recruiter does is carefully calculated
> to play on this. They go to recruiting school to learn how.
>
> "The Few. The Proud." You don't think that came out of the Marine Corps,
> do
> you? These phrases-"An Army of One," "Be All You Can Be"--come from ad
> agencies in New York. Nobody in those ad agencies, I promise you, was ever
> in the Marine Corps. New York sells the military the way it sells soap. It
> has no interest in you at all.
>
> Recruiters know exactly what they are doing. They are manly, which appeals
> to gutsy young guys who don't want to be mall rats. They are confident.
> They
> have a physical fitness, a clean-cut appearance that looks good compared
> to
> all those wussy lawyers in business suits. They invite you to come into a
> man's world. They promise you college funds. (Check and see how many
> actually ever get those funds. Read the small print.)
>
> And of course the military is a man's world, and it is an adventure, and
> it
> does beat being a mall rat-until they put you in combat. Driving a tank
> beats stocking parts in the local NAPA outlet-until they put you in
> combat.
> Days on the rifle range, running the bars of San Diego far from home and
> parents, going across the border into Mexico-all of this appeals
> powerfully
> to a young man. It did to me. It beats hell out of getting some silly
> associate degree in biz-admin at the community college.
>
> Until they put you in combat. Then it's too late. You can't change your
> mind. They send you to jail for a long time if you do.
>
> Combat is not the adventure you think it is. Know what happens when an RPG
> hits a tank? Nothing good. The cherry juice-hydraulic fluid that turns the
> turret-can vaporize and then blow. I saw the results in the Naval Support
> Activity hospital in Danang in 1967. A tank has a crew of four. Two burned
> to death, screaming as they tried to get out. The other two were scalded
> pink, under a plastic sheet that was always foggy with serum evaporating
> from burns where the skin had sloughed off. They probably lived. Know what
> burn scars look like?
>
> The recruiters won't tell you this. They know, but they won't tell you.
> Ever
> seen a guy who just took a round through the face? He's a bloody mess with
> his eyes gone, nasty hole where his nose was, funny white cartilage things
> sticking out of dripping meat. Suppose he'll ever have another girlfriend?
> Not freaking likely. He'll spend the next fifty years as a horror in some
> forsaken VA hospital.
>
> But the recruiters won't tell you this. They want you to think that it's
> an
> adventure.
>
> Other things happen that, depending on your head, may or may not bother
> you.
> Iraq means combat in cities. Ordinary people live there. You pop a grenade
> through a window, or hit a building with a burst from the Chain gun, or
> maybe put a tank round through it. Then you find the little girl with her
> bowels hanging out, not quite dead yet, with her mother screaming over
> what'
> s left. You'd be surprised how much blood a small kid has.
>
> You get to live with that picture for the rest of your life. And you will
> live with it. The recruiter will tell you that it doesn't happen, that
> it's
> the exception, that I'm a commy journalist. Believe him if you want.
> Believe
> him now, while you can. When you get back, you'll believe me.
>
> A lot of things in America aren't what they used to be. The military is
> one
> of them. The army didn't always use girl soldiers to torture prisoners.
> For
> that they had specialists in the intelligence agencies. You won't get
> assigned torture duty, almost certainly, because the Army got caught. Ask
> your recruiter about it, just to be sure.
>
> Don't expect thanks from a grateful nation. Somebody might buy you a drink
> in a bar. That's about all you get. Many will regard you as a criminal or
> a
> fool.
>
> Wars seem important at the time, but they usually aren't. Five years
> later,
> they are history. About sixty thousand GIs died in Vietnam. We lost.
> Nothing
> happened. It was a stupid war for nothing. Today the guys who lost faces
> and
> legs and internal organs back then are just freaks. Nobody gives a damn
> about them, and nobody will give a damn about you. A war is a politician's
> toy, but your wheelchair is forever. If you want adventure, try the
> fishing
> fleet in Alaska.
>
> Think about it.
>
>
> http://www.fredoneverything.net/GoingToWar.shtml
>
>
>