Posted 23 June 2006 - 09:48 AM
Speaking as someone who has been in the military, and is actually trained to be a member of a military action force and be deployed whenever there is gunfire to strike down the opposing force (basically what you do in a FPS game), I have to say this:
I would rather join the American Army than the Norwegian one.
While there will always be political aspects of any country's military force, the military is not the ones to blame for the politics.
The military only does what they are ordered to do. And they always recieve thourough briefings about an area before they are deployed there. This involves historical backgrounds, religious groups (and what they believe in and why this causes conflict), and expected opposing force.
When a soldier is on a mission, he always believe that what he is doing is the right thing, and that it needs to be done. Sure, there are psychopaths and other extreme cases who are there only for the "fun" of it - but they are usually spotted and thrown out really quickly.
The soldier who thinks that he is doing the right thing - does so based on his own moral and the briefing he has recieved before the mission.
This means that the briefing holds the key here. With the right briefing, you can convince anyone to think they are doing the right thing. And, again, the military itself does not make these briefings. Do you really think that the Sergeant who pushed you through the obstacle course every rainy evening suddenly is an expert on Irak?
Not very likely, but he will be the one performing the briefing, because he is the one who's orders you will need to follow on the battlefield. He is the one you have come to think of a "parent figure" in the military. He is the one who pushes you to the max, and he will push himself likewise to protect you. And he will be there for you, both to scold you for doing something wrong, but also to support you when you are having serious problems.
Reason I would join the American Forces instead of the Norwegian one, is because the American Army really takes care of you and your family. You recieve good pay, you get medical welfare for you and your family, they pay for your education, and so on.
The Norwegian one didn't do anything for me, except teaching me how to fire a plethora of weapons. And it paid 10 bucks a day. Sure you get your meals and bed for free, but once you get out, you really are back to square one without any savings.
And this is just comparing the recruit/private years. If you were to make a living in the military and go up the ranks, you would ofcourse get more money, but you really don't need to do that in America to still get a lot of benefits.
And who says that if you join the American Army, then you are immidiately sent to Irak or Afghanistan?
They do have the Country Protection Force as well, you know. In which case you never leave the country, but is deployed if America gets invaded - or to act as a humanitarian aid to the American people (for instance when a natural disaster strikes a city, like flooding, earthquake, tornado, etc.) to help rescue people and use military equipment, like helicopters and mobile hospitals, to save people's lives. They will also act to help the police deal with riots and extreme looting, if the situation goes out of hand for the police to deal with.
Or you could just be a Military mechanic and work in a garage somewhere and fix vehicles.
There is a lot to every country's military, it doesn't just involve war. And the military doesn't choose who they go to war against, politicians do.
Yo!
1
Sinke, on Jun 22 2006, 11:58 PM, said:
