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17 Reasons Not To Enlist


Here is an email I received in response to one of my essays.

17 Reasons Not To Enlist : afraid to give my name : Phunkadelic@aol.com : 2005-12-21

He is writing about my essay 17 Reasons Not to Enlist.

Your ideals are so sickening and ridiculous that they make me chuckle.

I’m really hoping that they are a joke, cause they are laughably incorrect and abserd. your 17 reasons for why people shouldn’t enlist are so out there i cant even begin to explain, but allow me to try.

My ideal is that people should have the right to be left in peace. Your ideal is that whatever the USA wants is hers to take by any means necessary. Your ideal is not ridiculous, but it is sickening. I can’t see anything either sickening or ridiculous about mine. Please elaborate.

1. You may be killed. Your family, friends and people who love you will have a lifetime of heartache. Any children you would have fathered will be aborted with you. Ok I agree with that, but that’s a risk hat everyone sign up for is aware of.

2. You may be maimed, have one or more limbs amputated or lose half your face or your penis and balls. According to military historian Gwynne Dyer, for every person killed, 8 are seriously maimed. You will live the rest of your life disabled. You may be so disfigured you will never have sex again. You will be stuck with the bulk of the medical bills. Modern medicine can resuscitate badly maimed people who would have died in previous wars. This means the Iraq war is cranking out an unusually high numbers of seriously maimed people.

Take a look at all the mays. listen pal, that doesn’t mean its gonna happen. also to address the part in italics and underlined.

Granted, most soldiers do return without wounds from a war. Even in the civil war, the bloodiest war the US has ever been involved in, 89% of the Union soldiers and 85% of the Confederate returned unscathed. If you play Russian roulette just once, you have 83% odds of winning. So, correct, chances are you personally will be OK, but if you are not one of the lucky ones, the penalty is horrendous, loss of life, limbs, mental capacity… Further, some of the people you work with, will be killed and maimed. What is your claim, that being a soldier is no more risky than any other job?

are you saying that modern medicine resuscitating badly maimed people is a bad thing? are you saying that you’d rather they die than live? It sounds like you’re saying its bad that we can save more lives now rather than leave people dead.

It is a mixed blessing. Emotionally, most people would sooner have a vegetable to tend for the rest of their life than lose a loved one entirely. But from a practical point of view, if you lose a loved one, you move on with your life. With a vegetable, you cannot. The important point I am making is warfare is changing to create more seriously maimed soldiers than ever before. Many might not fear death, but could not bear being maimed. Their odds of being maimed rather than killed are higher than ever. I am hoping this sensible fear will deter them from enlisting and butchering others.

3. Many returning from Iraq become mental basket cases unable to deal with the horrors of war and the guilt at what they have done. Friends and family reject them. They can’t hold down a job. They become homeless. Look at the way American treats the homeless vets of the Viet Nam and Iraq wars begging on the streets.

I know many marines and even the ones that are shell shocked. None of their familes or friends rejected them. Id really really like to know where you got that piece of info.

Be realistic. Families will not treat a disabled or brain damaged person with the same love and affection as an able-bodied husband. A disabled person takes huge amounts of care and can contribute little in return. They are an emotional sponge, very draining. It is not that different from having a deformed child. It often requires a family member to sacrifice a career to provide care. It is a financial hardship too, having a family member who cannot work. If you ask such a family, of course, they will lie and claim they feel no resentment and that all is just fine.

4. Over half the soldiers who served in the Gulf War, died of Gulf War Syndrome or were treated for it. They were in Iraq for only weeks. You will be there years. Read the fine print. Bush is keeping soldiers in Iraq for years after their contract expires. To this day no one knows for sure what causes Gulf War Syndrome.

What exactly is gulf war syndrome?

That is a difficult question. We do know that people who served in the Gulf War I for even a short time have all manner of unusual health problems and die young. The left claim the problem is primarily DU (Depleted Uranium) exposure. The Pentagon says the cause is unknown and presumably have no interest in finding out what it is before sending in a fresh batch of soldiers into harm’s way. I can’t believe you would be so reckless as to consider enlisting or encouraging others to without first researching this problem. Read what the Gulf War Vets themselves have to say about it.

7. You will be ordered to kill civilians and children. Once you are in the military, resisting is very difficult. You will be shot or imprisoned and treated extremely badly if your conscience awakens. American soldiers have already killed 100,000 civilians civilians, mostly children and that was before Fallujah. You will kill them to. That is what soldiers do, kill people they are ordered to. If you don’t believe me, have a long talk with some vets about their experiences. Keep in mind they won’t be proud of it and won’t leap to tell you what they have done.

That’s honestly the most insane thing I’ve ever heard. I was in Iraq and NO ONE that I know killed a child or woman that was innocent. And IF they were ordered to (which i have never heard of) and they resisted, the person who gave the orders wouldn’t shoot them. you really make me laugh.

So like the other American soldiers who have written me, you admit to killing kids, but only guilty ones. You might be surprised, but to most of the world that still counts as killing kids. Whether you were afraid of the kids, or whether they truly were a threat to you, has no bearing on whether you are a child killer. In this video an American soldier contradicts your claim American soldiers are never ordered to kill children and civilians. Unlike you, he does it on the record, so I find him more credible. Italian TV did a documentary on the American use of white phosphorus on the citizens of Fallujah. You can play a low-res version of the movie online  click to watch click to watch click to watch. You can download a higher quality version of the movie with BitTorrent in either Microsoft click to watch click to watch

8. There is some chance you may be ordered to guard and torture POW (Prisoner Of War) s

Torture? you don’t know what torture is you little Canadian bitch. You are the definition of some one who has no idea what they are talking about and a smartass.

I have done a lot more reading up on torture than you. There have been criminal convictions. Judge Hellerstein is forcing Bush to hand over his kiddie rape tapes. I bet you have not even read any books or news articles on the subject. Like a typical brain-washed soldier, you dismissed them all without even looking.

9. If you are very unlucky you may be ordered to participate in the raping of young Iraqi boys and preparing kiddie porn videos of the rapes for Bush.

Once again, never even remotely heard of such a thing over there.

If over here you mean Iraq, of course, not. The Pentagon carefully controls every word you hear. They are not going to broadcast anything that would start you questioning your actions or doing any sort of soul searching about your mayhem. If by over here you mean America, you won’t hear such stories on FOX TV news either. You have to read newspapers. If you were not such as dedicated ostrich, you would have at least clicked the links I provided. You are so out of the loop, you are blind even to the big story of Bush’s kiddie rape videos and how Judge Hellerstein is forcing Bush to release them. Unfortunately most of the articles about this are no longer available.

14. Presuming you are a believer in punishment in the afterlife, since you will be killing innocent civilians, mostly children, you will without doubt be condemning yourself to eternal damnation. That dread will hang over your head the rest of your life.

Why do you act as though when you join the army, your main focus and objective is to kill innocents, especially children? once again, i never was ordered to kill a child or woman, nor have anyone i know done it by themselves.

The purpose of war is to gain control of resources. Shock & Awe, torture, atrocities etc. are means to that end, to convince the enemy that you are such a big bad mean motherfucker they might as well surrender. The main drawback of war is the suffering. I focus on the women and children because Americans I am tryinvg to reach are typically such racists they have no concern at all for the suffering of brown-skinned males.

15. When you get back, your government will treat you like shit. They reneged on veterans benefits, housing, health care, rehab…

WRONG

You offer no backup for that assertion. A prudent soul would have checked with the veterans associations before enlisting to see just how much you can trust Pentagon assurances of help in the event of disability. Check out some of the vets sites to see how happy the crippled vets of Viet Nam, Gulf War I and the Iraq war are about how they have been treated.

16. When you return, many people will spit on you and treat you like shit. They will call you baby killer and baby rapist. You will receive ever increasing abuse over your lifetime as the horrors and injustice if the Iraq war surfaces. If you travel outside the USA, it will be even worse.

WRONG hippies did that in the 70’s buddy, do your homework, that doesn’t happen…ever.

The early Viet Nam vets were treated similarly to WWII (World War II) vets. Only over time as the atrocities, lies and pointlessness of the war came out, did the vets start getting treated like scum. The Iraq war is similar. Most Americans still have no idea how badly America has behaved in Iraq. As they find out, they will take their anger out on the vets. If want a foretaste of what is to come, travel to any country the world but the USA and Britain. A free world press means the rest of the world is much more clued in as to what you Americans have been up to Iraq. I trust you enjoy spittle in your beer and human feces in your food. Of course, if you hang out only with low life losers like other veterans of the Iraq war, you can form a mutual admiration society and lie to each other about how heroic your deeds were.

17 Joining the US military is a bit like joining the Mafia or the Bush crime family as an enforcer, or plotting to murder a child. It is not something you should do lightly. You should not do it just because other people told you to, or because the ads were cool, or because it’s an easy job to get. You should check out carefully who it is you will be killing and why your are going to kill them. That is your responsibility, not just the president’s. Once you are in the military you no longer get to choose who you kill. You are the one who will pull the trigger. You should be sure such murders are necessary, not just that the person you plan to kill hates America, which may well be a perfectly rational response after what America did to him, his family and his country and no reason to kill anyone. In Afghanistan, you will find the reason to kill is to guard a pipeline for Unocal and to guard the opium crop for the Bush crime family that, through Afghanistan, now controls 87% of the world’s heroin. In Iraq, you are there to steal oil for American oil companies by terrifying the locals through shock & awe into giving it up. You also want to consider the consequences to yourself. You are setting yourself up as a war criminal, same as any Nazi. Iraq is an illegal war. You are potential subject to the same Nuremberg war-crimes trials as the Nazis were. Following orders is no excuse for murder or torture. Also consider the penalty you will take on your physical, mental and spiritual health. Plan enlistment as carefully as you would any other premeditated murder of a stranger.

That’s the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard. i think you should do your research and not insert your political opinion into things when you’re trying to state the facts you dumbass.

It is ridiculous only because you are utterly ignorant of political history. You have not read a single book in your adult life, have you? No wonder you or so clueless.

FINISHER

Most likely you will pay no attention to me and you will sign up anyway. Think of me when you are sitting in Iraq with one eye blasted out like a smashed boiled egg, one leg missing and your penis dangling by a thread of skin. Think of me in the mental hospital when you are afraid to sleep because the nightmares of the kids you slaughtered come to haunt you. Think of me when you are on your death bed, wondering how you will explain to your maker why you killed all those people. Remember that I told you so. That is your natural punishment for being such a smartass, sadistic little brat.

you spoiled little brat. put yourself in a marines shoes, you signed up to get through college and now your in a war you dont wanna be in. you could get hurt at any time as could your friends. and you send them that message? that’s the most selfish egotistical thing ive ever heard you canadian prick, im sure if you were over there for 1 day you’d be shitting your pants and you’d completely take back everything you said. you’re a fucking little smartass that has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what you’re talking about. id also like to know where you get your facts considering you don’t even live in America.

Surprise. There is a free press outside he USA. The Internet is global. We Canadians have libraries and bookstores. If you can’t find a link for some specific fact, just ask and I will research one.

Im 99% sure you completely made up 5/6ths of this shit.

How could you be so sure when you don’t let anything into your brain but 100% pure Pentagon propaganda? You have never even looked at any other source of information. The Pentagon admits it makes its propaganda up. It has whole bureaucracies to create it.

I also wanna share with you the fact that people are FORCED TO JOIN YOU GOD DAMN IDIOT. they cant afford college and they habve no choice but to join. god you’re dumb. i hope you get this message and it at least turns your ideals a little. you are such a sad person. I ALMOST pity you.

Alternatively, you could have taken a job for the Mafia as an enforcer. The pay is better. The morality is identical. You would kill fewer children. The army is considered slightily more respectable in some quarters. You were not forced to enlist. Even when there is a draft, you can leave the country. You could have been a janitor or a McDonald’s burger flipper. But deep in your heart, you wanted to kill guilty kids. I spit on you for your lame excuses.

Note that you supplied not a single URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to back up your claims. You did not even reveal your name because you are too cowardly to stand behind what you said. Further, you could not come up with even one reason to enlist. All you could do is feebly quibble with my reasons not to enlist. In contrast, on my website, I give you all manner of books to read and links to news stories to back up my various statements. The problem is not that I did not provide backup but that you were too cowardly to read it. You know damn well if you did study up on what the Iraq war is really about, you would be wracked with guilt over your war-crimes. So you would sooner play bimbo and go on mindlessly killing without a troubled conscience.

17 Reasons Not To Enlist : afraid to give my name : Phunkadelic@aol.com : 2005-12-21

If you decide to enlist anyway, please ask your Mom to drop me a line when you are killed or rendered a vegetable. I want to celebrate one more sadistic asshole leaving the gene pool.

that’s the most disgusting thing ive ever heard. you think others are disgusting for killing innocents. that’s repulsive. id like to let you know that you are a sick human being and you are fucked in the mind. you celebrate someones death?

Of course, I do! If a child killer is stopped from killing more kids, I celebrate. No American soldier has any legitimate business in Iraq. The invasion and occupation are illegal. If an American is blown to bits in Iraq, he damn well deserved it. When American soldiers defend the USA, then I will back them to hilt. But when they are off on phony war to disguise oil plunder, I wish the soldiers every possible misfortune. Even if they don’t know what they are doing, they damn well should and I hold them 100% responsible for their war crimes.

what if they had to be forced in because they didn’t have money for college and they were instantly killed? would you celebrate then? HUH? WOULD YOU? U FUCKING SICK CANDIAN PRICK. YOU HAVE NO IDEA, NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT ITS LIKE.

I have been poor, without food or heat living in a little uninsulated cabin in the Canadian winter. It never once crossed my mind to kill anyone to improve my situation. There was no gun to your head forcing you to enlist. You chose because, in your heart, you thought killing would be more fun than pushing a broom.

its people like you that should be dying, not young men in iraq. I cant believe any human being would say such a thing. you are honestly, the most horrible human being i’ve ever encountered. i hope you’re proud, you fucking sicko. Oh not to mention, this isnt your countries war :p so do us all a favor…SHUT THE FUCK UP!

I am not killing kids. I am not torturing anyone. I am not bombing anyone. I am not setting anyone on fire with napalm or white phosphorus. I am not yanking the limbs from babies with cluster bombs. I am trying my damndest to stop these crimes despite the death threats from your ignorant buddies. The reason I seem like such a threat to you is that I stimulate your own conscience to pricking. You arger comes from your shame when I point out what a shithead you are being to encourage these crimes.

for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Matthew 26:52

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