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You continue to misunderstand. The details vary by service, but generally when enlisting you get a choice between open enlistment or enlistment in a particular
by jasonwatkinspdx 6y ago
You continue to misunderstand.
The details vary by service, but generally when enlisting you get a choice between open enlistment or enlistment in a particular specialty or skill set. Again, depending on the service, in many cases you can enlist for a guaranteed job role. Even in the case that you do open enlistment, when it comes down to it, no one in the US military is going to force you to go into combat with a gun to your back commissar style, as that's obviously incredibly likely to backfire, and in the worst case, backfire in a way that gets lots of other people killed to.
My friends that saw combat knew what their options were within the military and what they were signing up for. They may have had an idealized picture of what combat would be like, or the odds of a conflict happening, but they weren't forced into a combat role against their will.
I'm all for criticism of the military system of the US, but that needs to be grounded in reality.
- abosley 6y agoI'll add that while PTSD is a very serious problem, it is not a guaranteed outcome of being involved in combat operations - even over extended time periods.
- rayhendricks 6y agoWe have more people in the military dying from suicide than combat https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/01/us-military-suicide-epidemic-veteran https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/01/us-military-su... it’s a real problem.