>These days its hard to say anyone signs up for the military in the major democracies without realising what they where signing up for. The British armed force

>These days its hard to say anyone signs up for the military in the major democracies without realising what they where signing up for. The British armed forces recruit children from the age of 16. I don't agree that 15/16 year olds in their final year of compulsory education know what they are signing up for when the army recruiters come to their school. There are campaigns to change this, but as far as I know they haven't achieved much support. For example: http://battlefieldcasualties.co.uk http://battlefieldcasualties.co.uk (the powerful video on this site is also relevant to the wider points being discussed upthread about the treatment of ex-military people and how it compares to the fetishisation of the military in other contexts)