Does Volunteering Serve To Make One a Hero?

[Mzo]

Y'all know many military people?

It's pretty much the last line for morons.


"I have no usable skills or intelligence!"

"Son, let's get you a rifle to derp with."

I know enough of them to know that this is a stereotype that isn't always true.

Animegirl would probably disagree with you.

[dave is ok]

I'd have sex with animegirl

[YellerDog]

Icarus is too busy being "chemically sad" to look any further into it.

[Joust Williams]

Y'all know many military people?

It's pretty much the last line for morons.


"I have no usable skills or intelligence!"

"Son, let's get you a rifle to derp with."

[Doc Holliday]

Volunteering serves to satisfy ones desires. If it's military, it is for conservative reasons - domination, competition and parade. If it's community, it is for liberal reasons, sacrifice, charity, and humility. But they all serve to fill a void in your life.

[Gohron]

You're not painting with a broad enough brush. They're all stupid failures. Also, every job in the military involves a rifle.

I ended up getting booted out before my military career really took off but I tried to get back in several times. I wouldn't say that I'm a stupid failure. I've been somewhat of a cultural "drifter" throughout most of my adult life but I'm enrolled in school for a chemical engineering degree now. I also scored a 95/99 on my ASVAB (military test) the last time I took it. That placed me in the highest tier for military candidates.

I joined the Marines in 2004 for a lot of foolish reasons (mostly due to my youth). I tried to get back in in 2006 because I was ashamed of my failure. I attempted re-entry in 2008-2009 because I eventually figured it was a lifestyle and culture that suited me at that time in my life (much like my entry into the food service industry). I guess my biggest motivation for military service was service to my country and I figured it would be exciting (even if that excitement later turned out to be a negative experience). When I went through boot-camp in 2004, probably half of my platoon was composed of 17 year olds at start (myself being one of them). That's way too early of an age to categorize somebody.

[Diff-chan]

Hell no. The idea that everyone in the military is some sort of great hero is nothing more than propaganda. It does great damage to our political discourse and destroys the opportunity for real debate.

Everyone I know who signed up for the military did so because they felt like they were out of options. And for them the military turned out to give them options. So good for them. But once they got in they mostly did the bidding of giant corporations.

Smedley Butler was a great General in the Marines. This is a quote from his book, War is a Racket:

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

[Gohron]

Protecting the interests of a nation is a nasty affair. People can't and won't get along.

[Fe 26]

Its interesting how the military has evolved to deal with modern record keeping.

There is our armed forces, and then there are companies we pay to do things and companies that kindof/sortof talk our government/military into doing things.

What do I mean?

In the conflicts we were/are currently involved in, our government pays contract companies an insane amount of money to do things. These contract companies come in two flavors.

1. A contractor that one could argue is the very reason we are in the current conflict. They make a retarded amount of money providing services and infrastructure to our own military and in the rebuilding and control efforts of the country we are in.

2. A contractor that is little more than mercenaries. This company(s) does things that are not politically correct for our armed forces to be involved in.

I find the second group to be the most terrifying. We have tax records of the first. Most of the first kind have businesses located in the US and our military also records what we pay them to do. Those records are white washed, but they exist. There is almost zero records kept on the second. Their work is incorrectly recorded or not recorded at all and most of them live outside the US long enough that they do not have to report their income.

The only thing that the US government learned from Vietnam and Korea was marketing and branding. If you want to do something that the American people won't like, get the US flag off of it and destroy the paper trail.

[Diff-chan]

Protecting the interests of a nation is a nasty affair. People can't and won't get along.

Sure. But it doesn't make one a hero. It makes one a tool, like a hammer.