Land of Oz

COs

Conscientious Objector, that's what CO stands for. Here's an article, pretty favourable, in the Christian Science Monitor about a convicted deserter. I'd like to make my thoughts plain on this subject. The debate over CO status seems to be becoming more common especially as the Iraq mess gets worse and worse.

I'm kind of a hardass on this subject. Many years ago when people were drafted against their wishes into the military, I could understand this. Even today, if a person makes this decision during their initial signup I can understand. If a person decides they don't want to shoot or blowup people yet still want to serve their country in some non-combatant way, more power to them.

What I don't like are those who enlist, go to war, then after getting shot at, decide whoops, I goofed - I don't like to be shot at or shoot at. Is it really that hard to see that being in the military, especially the army or marines, means shooting at or being shot at? Do people really go into the military with so little thought? The days of getting drunk and waking up in boot camp are long gone - gone the way of P-38s and C-rats. Are the young people of today so stupid as to have no idea of what the military is about? Don't they watch TV, browse the net, read (gasp) a magazine or newspaper?

Can they really be surprised to find out they have to shoot people - or inturn get shot at? Honestly, I know kids can be stupid, but just how stupid can kids be? And this guy in question is almost 30 with two kids and a wife. And as far as GIs talking lewdly about Iraqi females - they will talk lewdly about any female. I've been out of the service for over 10 years, but I don't see the basic human nature changing much. It's still a place for a certain amount of crudity and lack of culture. I was in the air force, and even there enlisted cultural standards weren't much and the army is far behind. This doesn't apply to everyone of course, but I really don't think I'd be amiss applying it to most of the enlisted ranks.

You volunteered and unless you're a certified mental midget, the dark side of war making shouldn't be that much of a surprise. The worst is worse than you can imagine, but you should be able to imagine - or at least notice - that the business of the military is to kill others before they kill you. Otherwise it'd be the cub scouts.

Labels: government, gripes, military