Quote: "1) U.S. Military Service is VOLUNTARY. You do have some choice, the judgement call is made when you sign up. By signing that form you are responsible for the decisions that the government makes. It sucks, but it's the way it works."
Thank God it's voluntary! If not for the volunteers, it WOULD be required to serve...so that argument is
irrelevant in this case. You are also wrong about the decisions the government makes being our responsibility; by that logic, anyone who
votes or pays taxes is responsible for any Wars conducted under a government's watch! Again; your opinion, followed by mine.
Quote: "I have friends in other countries who are required to serve in the military. It's almost insulting to complain about not choosing our wars when we're voluntarily signing up and they don't even have that luxury..."
I have worked and trained with the British and German Armies; I know about the conscription in the German Army. Again, without the volunteer Army here in the States, it would be a requirement. It's
insulting to hear someone give an opinion that isn't based in reality, or grounded in factual information.
Quote: "Unless you blindly trust your government, a military career is not for you."
Please stop acting as though service members are ignorant of the ways of the world. Many of us are College educated, with more real-world experience (including non-conflict experience) than most of the posters on this board combined. There are bad people in the World who, like it or not, want to see innocent people die.
Sure; there have been far too many civilians killed in this (and other) War, none of us want to see that. But when you have an enemy firing on your position, using innocent civilians as shields; you have to do what you can to minimize the civilian casualties, but they do occur. Even when we were using similar tactics to fight the British (guerrilla warfare), we didn't use innocents as human shields; so there's no comparison there either. The second go around in Fallujah began by us telling the City to clear itself out, because we were coming in to take care of business. We could have just leveled the place and saved numerous American lives; but we took the more dangerous path. You can't blame the United States for all the ills of the World; it's an impossible assumption. I don't see any countries barring us from giving them aid and comfort.
Quote: "You do however get a choice of what internal deployment (squadron/unit/whatever) you get deployed to, depending on the position you apply for."
Perhaps in the Aussie Military, but not so in the US (unless you are going for a
VERY specific job, even then you get sent to whatever unit they need you in...unless you get something in writing).
Quote: "A dead enemy takes one man from the battlefield.
While an injured one would take away 3 (One injured and two to carry him to saftey)
Thats why the British use the 5.56mm NATO round, to injure the enemy and make the battle easier in the long run. An injured enemy could take weeks, or months to get back on the battlefield."
Now you're discussing Western tactics, with those of other nations/cultures. While it is true that in our case it takes more people out of the fight to deal with a wounded comrade, that is not so with other fighting forces. Look at Vietnam and the Middle East; they don't care for their wounded in the way that we do. For example; we don't use suicide bombers.
Look guys; it's obvious where my opinions lay, I won't be swayed because I've seen it and experienced it. Just like I don't assume what a FireFighter or World Leader does is right or wrong; because I don't have the facts (not the youtube facts....the
actual facts). Just like any other job or profession; until you've walked in those shoes, all you have is opinions on the subject.
-Keith
