Why would you enlist ?

Hey everyone.

Last night, I fell asleep with my headphones on listening to to the ATS Live show. Well I woke up... Go figure...

I woke up by some voices talking about stuff which I can't really say got to through on this end of the connection.
Doozy still... From the waking up part I guess.

I don't know if it was a re-run or live actually and in all honesty... I really don't care. I am however glad I did... Woke up I mean, because when the rambling started to make sense, I noticed what they where talking about, and it was one of those moments,. How would you call it ? A moment of clarity or something...

The conversation was about why people ( in this case American ) would enlist. Something I still don't really understand tough... I figure no soldiers no war... Right !

Reality is of course filled with countless of other ways of manifesting then my somewhat, childlike, and simple view on some of the worlds rather complicated issues. As usual I must add...

Why would someone enlist ?... You tell me ?

I've never came up with something that would justify enlisting... Not unless there was a necessity for self defense or something like that. Something that would sooth me... nope I still don't actually.

Well last night someone else enlightened me with her reason for enlisting and I finally began to understand... Not completely, but I'm very much getting there.

One of our own members, a moderator even, which I only learned after some clicks and so on... gallophinghordes. She actually opened my eyes by telling why she enlisted.

I want to thank her for sharing this. It felt as if the words came out with passion and disappointments from telling people over and over again why... for god sake why ? Why would you enlist ?

I'm not going to quote her but I will try and write down what she said.
Cause if I will start to quote her I would definitely screw up. And because it's a big thing in my eyes, maybe also to others that don't or didn't understand. I never did.. that's for sure. I will use ex tags for clarity though.

Ok here goes...

She said she enlisted for her neighbor, for her brother, her family, her children, some guy across the street, or in another state, for you, every other country member... Why ? Because the people that enlisted before her made it possible for her to live the live she lives, you live, her brother, some guy she never even have met or ever will.... So she will be part of something bigger, so that you, your children, and their children's children will be able to have the same possibilities in life, the same standards, freedoms and safe place to grow up in...

This is what all her predecessors made possible for her and every other American...Even with bad governments, corrupt presidents, dirty wars, whatever.

Presidents go governments change, but the place for them to be possible in the future like they have been possible in the past and present. That is the bigger thing... The reason for her to be part of what the future will be for the people that will be around after 50 years or a century... So they have the choice for themselves when their time comes.

Well... That's what I understood actually. Now it makes sense for me, cause thinking about it, I think this is a pretty damn good reason to enlist.

It's the only good reason in my humble opinion.

Suddenly my view of other peoples choices and ideas became opened for new ways of reason...

I enjoy leaning new things. Especially when they widen my overall understanding.


So gallopinghordes this one is for you !. Cause you struck me with your words.

Thank you.

Sinter Klaas

PS.

I'm not sucking up, I didn't know she was a mod .

I enlisted into the service 31 years ago and stayed in for eight years. Whole time under Reagan. It was The Cold War. With the Soviet Union. In my family, both sides, there wasn't much military history, maybe an uncle went in a long time ago and stayed in for a short while, otherwise, no one had any love for the military, nor the idea of anyone going into it. I went in --- purely ---- for job......reasons. THATS ALL. My hometown was drowning in economic decline, and I saw no future for myself there. I wanted to go elsewhere(s) and get paid for it.

Honor, duty, patriotism. Giving back to a country that has given so much.
hua

no matter how evil or wrong the government is human kind strives on exploration, protecting, and bettering themselves. i don't agree with the government on bit, but yet i still find myself thinking how it would be like to travel the world as a warrior.
i have decided to not inlist and stay here to protect my country against its inhabitants. it is our constitutional right, and its obvious the land is in dire need of guardians. our government wants to destroy us and this land and our fore fathers new it would happen. it is people like me that are actually protecting this land and its people. why would you travel thousands of miles away to protect somebody thats sitting right next to you now?

reply to post by simone50m


So you would empty a rifle on some folks ( if you had to. ) just because you felt miserable ?

reply to post by Rekrul


Like a warior ? Why not the french legion then or the highest bidder ?

The only way I would ever enlist is if we were being attacked here at home. I would never enlist to go to someone elses land and kill them. I would fight to save my country only.

MOTF!

reply to post by beezzer


You American?

Patriotism no country nah... The possibilities for future generations to have the option to make their own mistakes ? I feel is different

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


a warrior in the sense of being a warrior. titles don't really matter. you can call it what you will. its really just a symbol of strength.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


I swear, at 20 yrs old, such an action NEVER occurred to me. I never dreamt in a million years, I'd be in a shooting situation. And it turns out, I was never in a shooting situation. The whole entire time I was in the service, I was a clerk in a safe clean office environment somewhere or another. My first 'tour' wasn't too much of a 'foreign' 'hardship' either! Las Vegas. The only thing I ever 'shot' there, was coins into slot machines and video poker.

Great benefits and better stability than in the private sector.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


I enlisted in 1983. I had a two year active enlistment. Those were different times. I did it because I left college and needed to do something interesting and to get outside of my head. It was a great experience and I am proud to have "signed the dotted line."

Would I recommend anyone doing it now? Hell no. I would not volunteer to be part of invading and occupying army that entered other nations unprovoked and uninvited. As far as I am concerned, our wars are illegal and both Bush and Obama should be brought up on war crimes.

reply to post by pajoly


THANK YOU pajoly. Those were INDEED, "Different Times".

And hell naw, I would never recommend enlistment for anyone NOW, .......too.

To be honest my humble roots were not so noble...
You see I grew up on a 150,000 Acre ranch in North Central New Mexico...
150,000 Acre's that's fifteen squire miles of nothing but scrub brush and cattle...
to a young brash man like myself I was sick of being a real cowboy...
I wasnt looking to win honor or glory... I wanted off that damn ranch and the Marines were willing to help me out in that reguard...I had no illusions of grandure... to me it was just another dirty job that needed doing... TO me the biggest plus was no more horse stalls to muck out


I retired the first time in 1999 was recalled to active duity shortly after 911... re-retired in 2005... time will tell if I stay retired... Guess what the first thing I did after I retired was... Bought myself a little mini farm... Guess you can take the boy out of the country but not the country out of the boy...

Its a good question. I would like to think I would enlist if my country ever faced the threat of Hitler and the Nazi's, thats something I would die for and take an other mans life for. Nazism is everything I stand against and my for fathers stood against.

However, in todays world I dont see a threat on the scale of Nazi Germany, what I do see is lots of wars that are essentially protecting corporate interests, not defending our own nations from destruction. Its not like we would all be speaking Iraqi had it not been for the gulf wars.

Despite being anti war, I have a lot of respect for the British armed forces, just not the politicians who send them to their graves

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Yes. An American. Grew up in europe, though.

To each his own.

Originally posted by beezzer
Honor, duty, patriotism. Giving back to a country that has given so much.
hua

In these times, patriotism is a bastarized notion that may be best defined as:

pa·tri·ot·ism
[pey-tree-uh-tiz-uhm or, especially Brit., pa-]
–noun
devoted love, support and defense of the most powerful companies; the act of self-sacrifice to ensure the profits of corporations and the interests and/or whims of politicians

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


I am American. A Texan by birth. I grew up hearing my great uncles and grandfather talk about "the war". WWII. They were all Air Force or Army, and all of them were in Europe or North Africa, and all of them were combat vets. They talked about their buddies that made it home and the ones that did not. They talked about the honor of their service, how great it was to know they had a part in the world war that defeated a madman, and Im talking about Hitler, not Stalin, even though Stalin did surpass by far Hitler's bodycount. I could see the pain and also the joy in their eyes when they remembered their stories and buddies. I understood the sacrifice they made from an early age. Their service inspired me to serve, and I enlisted in the US Marine Corps when I was 18. I was in the Infantry, and also co-opted in the Military Police. I made lifelong friends, friends that I understood had my back whether life or death, and I returned that friendship. I did things that I NEVER would have thought I could do, and went places I never would have dreamed of going. I served my time, got held in a little longer with the stop loss order in 2003, and was then honorably discharged. I had some of the best times in my life in the Corps, and most of the worst. I would to it all over again in the blink of an eye, and have considered re-enlisting on an officer candidate's path since I have a degree now to mentor the younger Marines and share my experiences. I did not enlist to serve any president or politician, I did it to better myself, and to serve my countrymen and women in the traditions of my family, and to serve our great Marine Corps. I have alot of pride in what I did. I wear an Eagle, Globe, and Anchor pin almost every day, and I can tell you one thing, the enemies (and some of the allies) of America absolutely FEAR the US Marines. No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.

Ok this is working out well. thank you guys so far please let them come in...

It's weird how you read a total different thing when you look from another perspective.

reply to post by beezzer


Not trying to be ofensive in anyway here. I'm just asking questions. What did you get from you country actually ?

Originally posted by beezzer
Honor, duty, patriotism. Giving back to a country that has given so much.
hua

"...Flags, Heroes..."

*Corporate WARv1.9 Propaganda Machine -> EMPTY!, please insert more income tax*