# What is your attitude towards military enlistees **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 13, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072 "2007-02-13T20:29:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072/201 "2007-02-14T22:17:44Z")
[QUOTE=bannerrefugee] Are you in the military? If so you might have to start-right now. [/QUOTE] Yes, the Coast Guard. A branch of the military that, to my knowledge, doesn’t go around killing people. Not lately, anyway. But we don’t handle Search and Rescue over land. You know who does? The U.S. Air Force. In fact, every service is charged with a wide variety of peacetime missions that don’t have anything to do with killing people. It’s true, look it up. Or, fight your ignorance, as it were. You might want to go back and get a smaller brush. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072/202 "2007-02-14T22:21:11Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Not in any thread. The pro military people won’t tolerate any opinion besides worship of anyone in uniform. [/QUOTE] Attention you obtuse glob of amphibian entrails. I am as pro-military as one person can be, but to assume, without knowledge or cause that I “worship” any one in uniform strictly because they are in uniform, is one of at least a dozen statements in this thread alone, that you’ve made without any basis in fact. Just sit quietly in the corner while the adults talk about what a horrible little monster you are. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072/203 "2007-02-14T22:32:57Z")
Pro-military, long-time reservist, here. Not everyone will or can benefit from military service, but I wouldn’t discourage any young person from trying. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072/204 "2007-02-14T22:36:03Z")
> [@](#): > > **Dinsdale** : No, someone DOES NOT “have to do” what is currently being done in Iraq. We did not need to go in there and we do not need to remain. Enlisting, stepping forward to help the administration’s efforts, strikes me as at least in part an approval and enabling of the administration’s policy choices. I strongly reject the jingoistic “My country right or wrong.” If someone enlists in the military at the time a particular military action is ongoing, doesn’t that choice necessarily include an element of support for that military action? Hehe, see, I just did my yearly progress report for EPPES and it turns out I gave away nigh near a billion in federal funds in a way that I fundamentally think is a bad idea for taxpayers down the road…but hey, that’s what I get paid to do. So I’ve made a career of what then…aiding and abetting bad financial decisions??? I know that a good many people on this board, I’ve noticed at one time or another, have insinuated that lawyers are just people who prop up a fundamentally bad system…in so many words. See, I simply don’t think joining the military automatically = an intent to go to Iraq to carry out a morally questionable aim. My point was that in the international system, most, if not all states, are going to have a military for the purpose of self-defense. Most, if not all states, are going to engage in questionable wars at one time or another. If you want a career in a particular field, I believe you can make the decision to go into said career during a time of controversy (like the military, currently) for a variety of reasons, that do NOT involve current engagements. It’s simply not realistic to tell people to hold off on Career X until the situation is more politically expedient. Besides-you seem to assign culpability and morality along the lines of witholding from an action or institution until it meets your personal standards. There are any number of individuals who believe in becoming part of the system and changing it from within…or some crap like that. Anyway, I could go on and on and bring the Bhagavad Gita into it but I’ll just finish by saying someone who goes into the military may be either an asshole or a decent enough person but I withhold judgment on that until they demonstrate it to me one way or another. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072/205 "2007-02-14T22:36:43Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Not in any thread. The pro military people won’t tolerate any opinion besides worship of anyone in uniform. [/QUOTE] Now, see, politics aside, this is just a plainly stupid thing to say. Really. Stupid. It shows you have absolutley no grasp of the world the rest of us live in. It shows that you are just plainly stupid. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072/206 "2007-02-14T22:40:12Z")
**Dinsdale** –[remember _him?_] was the OP of this thread. He has requested it to be closed. And I’m executing his wish. **samclem** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-attitude-towards-military-enlistees/392072.md?page=10)