I'm going to be a flaming asshole in this thread, but that's because my pent-up rage over this horrific war is really starting to boil over. Maybe it's the Carolina summer, I dunno.
fugimax said:
I have more to offer to our country back home, that's why. I'm a student who just graduated college going into a graduate program. As much as the army needs people to take bullets, the country also needs people continuing their education so we don't fall behind in the sciences and the humanities. We have just as much time in peace as in war.
So basically, what you're saying is that, in order to SUPPORT THIS WAR EFFORT (and remember, this is what Mandark is asking about here-drag this into a question of "maintaining prosperity" and I'll ask you why the continuation of the US occupation is a necessity to maintain that prosperity), you're more valuable as a beginning grad student working for a professor than taking your analytical skills and applying them in the active armed forces.
The war effort needs more than just people to take bullets and IEDs. They need engineers and technicians, translators and military intelligence just as much, if not more, than infantrymen.
I think you underestimate your potential to contribute to the modern military.
As for continuing excellence in the humanties, arts, and scientists, I'd say let's leave that to the people who did not, do not, and will not support occupation of a foreign country. Take the title of this thread-Put Up or Shut Up. The Army needs people, and we're wondering why people who support the war aren't stepping up to rise to the challenge that the military has laid at their feet.
Everyone has their role...fighting with a gun (i.e. joining the military) are for those who:
1. Really want to fight (selfish, but in the end, probably the best soldiers)
2. Feel they should be fighting
3. Have nothing else to offer
There are enough people from those three categories to make an army...so yell at them.
No, there aren't enough people to fill that role. If there were, the active forces Army wouldn't be on track to be short almost an entire division in a year.
We need people to step up. You don't have to be on the frontlines with an M-16 and a humvee-but the Army does need skiled, intelligent people to fill roles that the "usual" recruit can't do. They could teach you to be an intelligence grunt, or a field medic, or even an administrative assistant I bet. They need more bodes, period. Not just your narrow view above.
There are of course positions aside from "soldier on battlfield," but unless you do ROTC in college or went to a military school, you'll most likely get a gun and a helmet. That's why people like me who have more to offer than a body don't join via straight-up recruitment.
Nah, when you take their tests and score off the scale, they'll open things up to do a whole host of things. You're a college graduate, and are probably intelligent-I'm sure they can find a way to make a significant contribution even if doesn't involve combat. Have you even inquired at your local recruiter? Feel free to post your name and phone, if you'd like-I can arrange for someone to contact you very quickly.
Put up or shut up, I say. I bet you just don't want to join the Army, don't care that the troops are fighting an unjust war but you certainly "support them" in hollow words that have no credibility or resolve behind them.
