And the warmongers waste no time

[Anymouse]

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... I suppose this is easier with the Silicoid, who do not care where I send them or what there mission is... and who I pay only by feeding them, unless they happen to ask for more (the only way you get into our government). Humans are rather more fickle about war, wanting far more than the respect our people have towards those of us who have fought for the others. Indeed, your race uses military as leverage for nonsense like college... like they cannot even make up their minds as to whether they want to pursue science or directly fight wars, but the reality is that they don't wish to fight wars when they do this.

If a country must conscript to receive its fighting force: it is evident that the heart of the people is not in the country. Drafts are not relevant in a society willing to serve its continued existence, especially when they will not do this in the face of a war. But perhaps this is because humans do not face the reality of space: battles of extermination... times when entire star systems full of our families and friends are annihilated wholesale by alien forces that aren't remotely interested in the lives of our people.

While I am certainly not against your militaries... I am against the philosophy of your race's military tradition. It isn't about what the soldiers wish to distinguish themselves for, it isn't about presenting your proficiency for combat, it isn't even about earning the respect of your people...





It's uniform, it's marketed, and it is faceless. I do not believe that this accomplishes anything more than to demoralize your troops and to shatter any hope of furthering tolerance of difference among your populace. And when they return home they face shit like being insulted by random civilians who disagree with whatever war the veteran returned from, and when they die their death rituals are sometimes disturbed by shit like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spz_weG6MVg

It disgusts me that even such a base society could ever disrespect the reason for its continued existence in the face of war.

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That you do not slay your own "leaders" is beyond me.

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Actually, Miss Aerzia, what you say makes much sense, which worries me about me.

As for the college benefit part, the VA took mine away from me, saying I was unemployable. That college bene thing isn't guaranteed either. I was once posted as a Navy recruiter (during the Persian Gulf War, lemme tell you, recruiting then wasn't a cakewalk) and did not know they could take the college benefit away from you by simply declaring it. I thought I knew every in and out about the college programmes of all the services, but that one surprised me when the VA took it away upon my discharge after seventeen years.

However, as I am listed as permanently disabled for epilepsy and craziness, my wife can use the college benefit to add to her three college degree collection.