View Single Post
Old 03-03-2004, 03:29 PM   #51 (permalink)
irateplatypus
can't help but laugh
 
irateplatypus's Avatar
 
Location: dar al-harb
Quote:
Originally posted by User Name
but most people who volunteer to serve in the military simply do so because of lack of other opportunity, not because of a desire to fight for this country. The military is one of the only, if not the only, field where a person with only a high school diploma can advance up the ladder and get paid a decent salary. I really hate how these people get portrayed as oh-so-heroic fighters of our freeedom.
wrong. your conclusions aren't false because my opinion says differently, but because they aren't based in reality. i'm guessing your wrote this out of your perception of the military, not anything based on experience or fact.

most service men and women get paid less than they would for equivalent jobs in the private sector, all the while they face long deployments away from home and the reality of possible combat. as a general rule, those in the military are drug-free, clean cut, discliplined and skilled.

while it may not be seen from your ivory tower, there are plenty of honorable professions that do not require a college degree to succeed in. even so, the average military member is better educated than a cross-section of the general population with the same demographics.

it's a cliche, but it is those people you just mocked that allow you to go through your life in blissful ignorance.
__________________
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill
irateplatypus is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76