If our military and our leaders need to keep secrets to protect us, thats OK with me. We don't need to be prying into their business at the time.
Do you want them to warn everybody that you might get hurt if you join the army, like they're going to get sued like Macdonalds if they don't?
Yeah, maybe no body would want to go to fight in a war if the army told them everything, but we have to have somebody do it, don't we?
If we didn't have the army and the marines we wouldn't be a free country.
Not only that, but you can get trained for a job in the army.
Not every body is borne with a silver spoon in their mouth.
The army is a good thing for people who don't have a l;ot of money.

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mjr40

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rrmoderator
Note the distinctions between education, adverstising, propaganda, indoctrination and thought reform, which is used by "cults."

If I may, I must respectfully disagree:

- The military uses a tremendous propoganda campaign in order to entice new recruits. They appeal to primarily an 18-year old male's baser instincts: of wanting to conform, of wanting to belong to a group at any cost, and the idea of submitting your entire life to an organization in order to get ahead. Appealing to these baser instincts is part and parcel of cultic recruiting.

Hmmm... for me it was the joy of owning my own M16A4.

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mjr40

The education received in the military is good only for military things, like how to repair howitzers and other military systems.

This is not true. My MOS yielded nearly 30 hours of legitmate undergraduate credit for a bachelor's degree for general education and major specific credit.

Please do research and present facts instead of hearsay and opinions.

There are jobs in the military other than infantry and artillery.

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zaflon
Hmmm... for me it was the joy of owning my own M16A4.

It should be noted that high-powered semi-automatic weapons exist for only one reason - to exterminate human life.

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rajendran
My MOS yielded nearly 30 hours of legitmate undergraduate credit for a bachelor's degree for general education and major specific credit.

What was your Military Operating Specialty? What university did you attend while you were in the military?

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andychee
What do you want to do, let every guy decide for hisself what to do?

If every guy decided what they wanted to do, they would all choose the most rational course of action, that is, not to kill other human beings and to remove themselves from a dangerous situation so that they will not risk being killed. This rational thought pattern changes once they pass through the thought-reform processes of boot camp. Such processes are draw on many of the same tactics that mind-control cults use: isolation for extended periods of time, intimidation, high-pressure psychology, verbal/physical abuse, lack of sleep, use of language to stop critical thinking and breakdown of the individual identity.

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andychee
If our military and our leaders need to keep secrets to protect us, thats OK with me. We don't need to be prying into their business at the time.

Full disclosure is seen as one of the hallmarks of a healthy institution, whether it is a social group, a marriage or a government.

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andychee
Yeah, maybe no body would want to go to fight in a war if the army told them everything, but we have to have somebody do it, don't we?

This brings up an important point: given that the military must lie, hide the truth, use propoganda and other cultic techniques in order entice/force/manipulate young adults into doing activities that they normally would not do, ie: kill human beings, it begs the question: should we, as a society, be engaging in wars in the first place?

Yeah but we need some body to protect the country from our enemies.
Maybe you don't want to but there are some guys who do.
Thats how they got guys to go fight terrorists in Iraq. If they let them think for them selves the terrorists would take over the US.

You are getting more into the sphere of politics or ethics than anything to do with cults.

There are lots of young men wanting to join the army. Most of them don't need any sinister manipulation to want to fight or play with guns- they love it. Getting young men to stay out of fights is more of a problem half the time.

Love
Kath

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mjr40

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zaflon
Hmmm... for me it was the joy of owning my own M16A4.

It should be noted that high-powered semi-automatic weapons exist for only one reason - to exterminate human life.

The M16 is a fully automatic weapon, not semi. They might be made for killing, but it really is outstanding fun to fire one. If you get a chance, give it a go.