Would you still let your son or daughter go into the Military after this past year?

[Journeyman]

The thing that has to be killing these people waiting for loved ones at home...
The way they keep pushing back their stay over in the middle east....And you just know there will be stories of soldiers dying right before their tour of duty was about to expire...

Or being told "90 more days" when you think your coming home...unimagineable dispair!

 

[Marco]

Personally, I don't have kids so this question wouldn't apply to me much....

My own thoughts about the middle east and our involvement there.....Yes, we should be hunting down Al Queda and Osama, and all the other bombers over there....it will be a difficult task to say the least....it's not like some crackhouse in the neighborhood where the police surround and then kick the doors in.....this crackhouse is a few thousand square miles and the size of a country, and has common people inside just trying to make a living, not all of them are operating terrorists....

Personally I don't trust the government/military as much as I use to....too much has changed over the years.....big business runs this country and the politicians of this country have more ties to big business....scandals, bribery...too many deals under the table....when you do fight then there's "rules of engagement".....more politics.....wars are not fought the same or for the same reasons as they used to...

Don't get me wrong, I feel we have to defend the country and should defend the country.....if and when these terrorists are eliminated the whole world can sleep better....I think that right now we are trying to cut the heads off the dandelions so to speak, we kill a few terrorists and a few more just take thier place like the dandelion grows back....somehow need to get at the root and change thier terroristic way of thinking, and dig the dandelion out roots and all, instead of watching it grow back....

I think this is going to play out like Israel and the palestinians.....don't like to say that but I feel it is true.....

A rather complicated issue regardless....

 

[EverFresh]

I would never let my kid join the military, are you kidding?

Complete waste of the best years of your life and as an added bonus you might get your legs shot off or killed

No way. Bum around Europe for a year or two, get laid a whole lot and find yourself instead

The great US army will find its way without my kids being served up as cannon fodder for idiotic overseas adventures by our "leaders" whose own kids are as far from combat as you can possibly imagine

Let me know when shrub's two out of control daughters get behind a machine gun on a humvee and mabye I'll change my tune

 

[Shotgun]

Nearly half a million people were killed in car accidents last year; shouldn't you be asking if we would let our son or daughter get into a moving vehicle?

 

[barman]

Well, fwiw, the actual number of Americans who die in motor vehicle accidents is well under 50,000. Last year 43,000.

Given that we have over a quarter million drivers in the USA annually who each drive literally countless numbers of trips per year, we can see the odds of dying in this manner are a bit different than that of being a U.S. military person in Iraq.

Let's say each driver only made 365 trips per year, which is laughably low. That would be 91 million trips per year divided by 43,000 deaths. Your odds of dying in this example would be well over 2000 to 1.

Meanwhile, American military and related personnel in the past 13 months have lost close to 700. Divide that into 130,000 troops. You have about under 200 to 1 chance of dying and that's if it ends tomorrow.

Oh, to the Topic question, I have two sons 21 and 18, and a daugther 16.

I could not legally 'stop them' from joining the military, but I would watch with sadness as either they became casualties, or maybe worse, given the current campaign in Iraq, they create casualties for such a bullshit cause.

 

[UncleMoneybags]

The survival rate for someone in the armed forces is high despite what everfresh said. Every single person I know that is in Iraq is alive and well. Soldiers have died and that is a shame but it's not a death sentence if you go to Iraq.

To add something more, the U.S. military is a lot larger than 130,000 troops. I'd say at least a million and not more than 2. You have to remember all the other areas that are defended by U.S. troops. Also, just because you join the military doesn't guarantee you a trip to Iraq or Afghanistan. You may have special technical or intellectual skills that would be of greater use in a non-combat role. If you're smart enough they're not going to waste you on infantry duty.

 

[Shotgun]

Thanks Barman...I read the headlines of the traffic deaths and mistakenly added a 0 to the number. The military understands the risk when they sign up, much like a cop knows he may not come home at night. I will encourage my son to go into the service; the best people I've known in my life have been in the military. Just about everyone, including myself, has come through it a much better person than they were when they walked in. Risks are everywhere in life, including Iraq. It is part of life.

 

[EverFresh]

"Anyone who risks his life for a stranger is a sap"

Sonny Corleone, Godfather II

 

[barman]

I can dig it Shotgun. Like you, by now at age 44 I certainly have a lengthy list of smart, sharp winners around me who also did military service.

And I understand 'life is risky', and also that most American GIs won't be sent to Iraq. I have a good friend whose daughter just got her first assignment with the Air Force and it's in London.

But in current context, which could change quickly in the next few months, the risk of dying is as high as anytime in my life other than the last five years of Vietnam. So at this moment, I would strongly discourage joining the military. Especially if the potential applicant had the wherewithal to send a letter in writing to military officals telling them that he is very interested in joining to serve, but considers the current campaign in Iraq a boondoggle he is not prepared to take the risk of being involved with.

If enough young men and women were to deliver that message, we might see some quicker change from the Pentagon and a reversal of current priorities to that of actual defense and service to our country, instead of serving as paid mercenaries for corporate killers.

 

[Phaedrus]

Um, by the time your kid is military age, he's an adult. Not your choice whether or not he joins.

If my own son wanted to join the military, I'd tell him my honest opinion of the idea, but it would be his decision to make, not mine.


Phaedrus

 

[jointpleasures]

Damn rights, I'd tell him, great idea. Best yet, keep his grades up in high school and let him be a good athlete (fathers genes you know) and guess what, he may get a full ride to the Air Force Academy! I know about 20 years ago a scholarship to the AFA was worth over a quarter million dollars.

He won't be an alter boy - that is for sure.