[Shiftyze]

Was just thinking about this the other day now that I have friends who are in the army. Do you think it's right the military can just recruit kids from your own school?

In my opinion, I think it's wrong. Sure they are a lot more mature, but I don't think they are at the right age and mind thought to make such a decision before even finishing High School. It's kind of messed up the more I think about it. It's just like, you see them sitting there waiting for kids to come sign up and the parents would never even know. They don't even get to be there for it.

It's like it's just two grim reapers waiting for people to walk up and sign their life away before it has even really started.

[download]

I assume it's the same in the US, but in Australia, if you're under 18 you need your parents to co-sign when you sign up.

If there over 18, then they're adults. Nuff said

[Noble]

I believe it's wrong. Highly aggressive recruiters will try to fill young kids heads with lies of going out and "defending freedom" when they're really doing nothing of the sort. They aren't old enough to fully understand the consequences of joining the armed forces, getting shipped off to some foreign country and rarely get a chance to come home and see your family anymore before they ship your ass back for some more "defending freedom".

These recruiters are often very aggressive about what they do. When I was 18 I had numerous recruiters approach me in stores and start bothering me about joining the military. I made the mistake of getting talked into giving one of them my phone number to call me with more information, which resulted in this recruiter attempting to call me over 10 times a day until I told him to stop calling and I wasn't interested.

A 17/18 year old almost always isn't wise enough to make a decision like that. But apparently the government is fine with shipping these kids off to die, while at the same time thinking they aren't mature enough to even have a drink until they're 21.

[Coridan]

Thank former President George W. Bush for this. He passed the "No Child Left Behind" act, and this was one of those hidden little things they like to sneak in with laws and acts.

I'm a Marine and I still think it's wrong. Young kids are too impressionable and recruiters glorify military service to a point of hilarity.

[dass]

In my country, when you reach 18 and a half or something, you have to go to a military base near where you live.

You wait for a bus to come and get you and the rest of the people, and then it takes you to a military base where they will show you what the army is like there, its different branches, their gear and so on.
IMO, its way better than having people at schools trying to recruit kids. It gives more and better information about the whole thing instead of a guy saying "come, we'll kick everyone's ass and then we will be showered in glory"

Then in the end, they take you back home after 2 meals (takes a whole day) and youre done. You enlist if you want, no pressure.

[kebab52]

It's a legitimate career, so I don't see why not.
Mind you, I can see the other side of the argument. Don't know how it is in America but over in the UK we don't really have in-school recruiters, they're mostly at the schools careers/higher education conventions. But a career in the forces isn't a terrible job by any means.

[bye]

Noble posted:

I believe it's wrong. Highly aggressive recruiters will try to fill young kids heads with lies of going out and "defending freedom" when they're really doing nothing of the sort. They aren't old enough to fully understand the consequences of joining the armed forces, getting shipped off to some foreign country and rarely get a chance to come home and see your family anymore before they ship your ass back for some more "defending freedom".

These recruiters are often very aggressive about what they do. When I was 18 I had numerous recruiters approach me in stores and start bothering me about joining the military. I made the mistake of getting talked into giving one of them my phone number to call me with more information, which resulted in this recruiter attempting to call me over 10 times a day until I told him to stop calling and I wasn't interested.

A 17/18 year old almost always isn't wise enough to make a decision like that. But apparently the government is fine with shipping these kids off to die, while at the same time thinking they aren't mature enough to even have a drink until they're 21.

hey at least military service is not mandatory in the states

and listening (or paying attention) to some fuckwit recruiter isn't mandatory either, so really you could have just ignored them or walked off. Anyone that buys into the glory of military service is probably delusional and needs a bit of a reality check anyway

it's a two way street, you can't get recruited without your consent, so I don't see what the big deal is