Decisions to join or not join the military

[2/325Falcon]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe this was the case back when people were fighting with spear and shields. But I dont see how this still applies when you arent even sure who your killing.


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to be a warrior why not just go into MMA where everyone is trained and you can real "show your stuff", i dont see how killing people who are throwing rocks at you is
feeling like a warrior.


[/ QUOTE ]

I know this is The Lounge where posters are supposed to have civil conversations, but posting these statements means that you not only have no clue what modern war is like but you also have no idea what actually happened in the middle of a Greek phalanx. And athletes are not warriors.

Just because you don't understand why MuresanForMVP enlisted doesn't mean he's "immature."

[Shadowrun]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Maybe this was the case back when people were fighting with spear and shields. But I dont see how this still applies when you arent even sure who your killing.


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to be a warrior why not just go into MMA where everyone is trained and you can real "show your stuff", i dont see how killing people who are throwing rocks at you is
feeling like a warrior.


[/ QUOTE ]

I know this is The Lounge where posters are supposed to have civil conversations, but posting these statements means that you not only have no clue what modern war is like but you also have no idea what actually happened in the middle of a Greek phalanx. And athletes are not warriors.

Just because you don't understand why MuresanForMVP enlisted doesn't mean he's "immature."

[/ QUOTE ]

1. I do not think MurseanForMVP is "immature" or anything bad unless his sole reason is to be a "warrior" which i can not help but think is funny.

2. Im not sure why you brought up the Greek Phalanx, maybe because I used the words "spears and shields"? But surely you know other countries and cultures used spears and shields. Actually, im not even sure why we are talking about the Greek Phalanx, since i never have once referred to it.

3. When I said MMA I never said go to UFC. Maybe your confusing the two.

[2/325Falcon]

Ugh. This is exactly why I didn't post in the thread when I first saw it two days ago.

This thread is "What were your reasons for deciding to be in the military or not?" This thread is not "What do you think about other people's motivation to be in the military or not?" You can think whatever you want but no one wants to hear it. Especially from a guy who doesn't know squat about war.

It's not OK for you to be spewing about immaturity for the same reason it wouldn't be OK for Muresan to be calling people who didn't serve cowards. DUCY?

[Shadowrun]

[ QUOTE ]

It's not OK for you to be spewing about immaturity for the same reason it wouldn't be OK for Muresan to be calling people who didn't serve cowards. DUCY?

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
1. I do not think MurseanForMVP is "immature" or anything bad unless his sole reason is to be a "warrior" which i can not help but think is funny.

[/ QUOTE ]

[daveT]

[ QUOTE ]


1. I do not think MurseanForMVP is "immature" or anything bad unless his sole reason is to be a "warrior" which i can not help but think is funny.


[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is disturbing.

If we are going to use movies to explain ourselves, look at Bunny from Platoon.

The reality is that there are people who want to join because they really want to kick someone's a##. I don't understand this motivation myself, but I do understand that it comes from some sort of glorified image of what it means to be a man, or a warrior, I suppose.

I don't find the above disturbing. I guess some people think it is good to help or protect other people. A doctor cannot be faulted for this, nor can a person be faulted who would believe that going to protect the tutsus is just.

I find it disturbing that the main motivation for some people is that they want the adrenaline rush of simply going out, living in the sticks, and shooting guns. Some people have this as an image of being a man. I don't agree with this.

I don't know MVP's reason for wanting to join the military, but I think that the adverse reaction to your writing is because some people think you are joining for the second reason, but using the first as a blanket.

The biggest problem with explaining yourself, is that there seems to be no good reason to go and risk life and limb on a war that makes no sense (to many posters) what-so-ever, thus you appear to want to join for the sake of playing cops and robbers. Nor have you really mentioned that you are joining for the sake of helping Iraqi women have their pre-invasion freedom back, or to help re-build the police force, or do anything good that will result in peace.

You say you want to be a warrior, and that conjures up images of Conan the Barbarian.

[Duke]

It's tough to want to join a team as a peon (it takes time to get into a position of any power at all) when you disagree with how they've done every single thing since you've been alive.

[MuresanForMVP]

[ QUOTE ]
SO your telling me the reason my grandfather was shot in the leg (didnt even know which guy did it- that IS war) is because he wanted to feel like a warrior, no it is because he was conscripted and that is who you might be fighting against. Really "warrior" there right?

BTW none of my friends/family who have joined did it to be a "warrior" which is seriously the most dumbass reason i have ever heard, and one i can not help but to think is rooted in
immaturity.

[/ QUOTE ]

you're entitled to your opinion, just like Im entitled to my opinion that you're an idiot. You're trolling this thread...why? I've become accustomed to fighting in my life, it comes naturally, so it makes sense to be a professional fighter/warrior right? If you dont think this is a good reason then may I ask what is? IMO it's the most sound reason. Join the military to get money for college, is that what you're saying? That's [censored]. If I'm going to join a fighting force, then it certainly follows that the most basic reason for doing so is to be a FIGHTER.

Frankly I don't care why your friends or family joined, people join for different reasons. You've shown a complete inability to understand why people join the military. But this thread is about MY decision to join, not what Shadowrun thinks of people's decisions to join. So kindly, [censored] off

[MuresanForMVP]

I have plenty of peripheral reasons for joining, but I didn't want to bore the board with them all, so I chose the most basic reason why. Why join the Marines unless you want to be a Marine which is at its most basic a warfighter? This isn't the damn National Guard where people join because they think they'll have some fun a couple weekends a month, then bitch and moan when they get deployed to Iraq.

[Kimbell175113]

We all understand why it's a bad thing if someone becomes a cop just to have power over others. Now, everyone has that impulse to at least some extent, and you shouldn't let it prevent you from being a police officer if you have other, nobler reasons and you think you can do good. But if you just want to hit, shoot, and handcuff, then you are a sociopath and exactly the wrong kind of person to have a badge.

Shadowrun is just saying that it's similarly bad for someone to become a soldier solely for the killing. Now, Muresan, we know you're not a sociopath. But I think you'll agree that they do exist, and that the military would be better off overall without them.

[Blarg]

I thought I had better prospects elsewhere. The military had a rep of being one step short of prison as far as the qualifications necessary to get in, and prospects once you get there. I think I got no less than a 99% on every section of the ASVAB and 100% on most, and I was barely paying attention and only took it because we were forced to. I don't expect to get that good a score on anything more complicated than peeling a banana.

Also, I'm not a fan of certain jobs where you cannot live in accord with your conscience if you want to keep the job. Those jobs include being a cop, a crook, in the military, a lawyer, and a salesman, as examples. In those jobs, if you know what you are doing is wrong, even terrible, you have to do it anyway. As scary as that prospect is, something even scarier to me than being someone who does the wrong thing is someone who brainwashes themselves into thinking it is the right thing, and so loses all integrity at the deepest level.

I can see doing evil for a profit motive, for your own delight, whatever. It's a choice, and you can be true to it, whether I approve of it or not. It's in congruence with who you are. But I can't get past the next step. When you try to justify the unjustifiable by twisting moral arguments around or being purposely oblivious, in a selfish attempt to make yourself feel better or look better than you are, then to me you become dead to your own soul and lose more than a person should ever volunteer to lose. You betray yourself on too fundamental a level to be able to recover what I would find worth keeping. I would rather be miserable about what a corrupt person I was than kid myself or others that I was anything but someone willfully doing the wrong thing and willing to acknowledge and accept the consequences. So that makes certain jobs out of the question, as being miserable and corrupt aren't among my top choices when it comes to ways to live and who to be.