what is being in the army like?

[Sleksa]

Its like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAKNYSxb7_8

That's pretty much how the training is. Your previous life has no value once you enter, and even if you are in a great shape/motivated/educated, it is of no guarantee that you would make it, and sometimes you cant do shit to it. You might end up in a dorm with a few junkies and a few violent guys(really people who just like to beat people up because its fun), or in a dorm with nothing but wimps who cant do shit and you will fail tests because your group mates are as intelligent as a piece of bread.

Regarding the choice of what you will do after basic training, Going into normal infantry is not a good choice, you will get shipped into hotspots and be shot at/bombed at/ mortared/sniped/suicide bombed, even if you make it through you will propably get a ptsd/kill someone and get ptsd/see shit that will give you nightmares , for no real good reason

Going into any other branch like airforce or transportation/armored will give you the chance to shoot with big guns and have some sort of bonus for your civil life, with minimal chance of ever getting shot/having to really shoot at someone.

For example in finland the army is the prime source of logistics training, giving hundreds of people licences to drive trucks up to 60 tons(the cost of the driving licence for trucks and heavy combinations is 2k-5kÔé¼, with working permit in europe being about 20kÔé¼), with job experience for a few different types of vehicles too. Officer training on the other hand gives bonus points to people applying to higher education, and is pretty valued in the job market too

Anyway, you might volunteer to Israeli army - you actually get to kill people to death here, and you have probably the best training in the world (3 years of service min). Negative side - no pay.

I know tens of people who served in the Israeli army - most of them in combat troops - all of them are absolutely happy about the experience. The ones that were in non-combat units, however, are mostly not very happy about their service.

If you really like killing, just go buy a knife and go shiv people on the ghettos.

And regarding israeli army, their service is mandatory too, and i do doubt that they are absolutely happy about killing the neighbour muslims, with a constant fear of being kidnapped/sniped/mortared/suicide bombed/shot

you sound more like a recruiter or a guy who spent his time watching black hawk down more than digging foxholes in -30c into frozen ground, when finished told to fill the hole up and go dig a new one 1m further ~_~

[Teutooni]

Anyway, you might volunteer to Israeli army - you actually get to kill people to death here,

Haha. "Oooh real killing, cool!" You honestly think that's an asset?

[zwzsg]

Not merely kill, but kill to death!

[KaiserJ]

If you really like killing, just go buy a knife and go shiv people on the ghettos.

see, now thats a pro-active alternative to war. very good. if everyone thought this way, we wouldn't have war. or ghettos.

[hoijui]

it would mean, at least one more person dieing in the ghettos (where there is war). and in the unlikely case you was not the first person (cause they might have better weapons then knives there), you will be the second one, quite sure, at least.

but there has to be a way to be able to kill for peace ...

[JohannesH]

but there has to be a way to be able to kill for peace ...

Yes, for people who like both killing and peace

[1v0ry_k1ng]

OK, my current plan:

I am going ahead with aqquiring my teaching placements starting october but I am going to join the army in june and go through bootcamp. iirc there is a 8 week period in which you can bail at any time without penalty; at the end of the 8 week period, I will decide if the army is relavent to my interests (boot alone will probably be more than enough to satisfy the urge to find out) and either stay in the army and defer the teaching placement, or bail on the army and go ahead with my placement in october.

[Panda]

Are you serious? Being a teacher is an important job. You are responsible for ... improve your teaching skills, get a second job... some kind of activity that you could do aside from joining the military that is considered to be manly ... Don't most teachers want to do things like actively participate in the community? ...

LOLWUMAN are you serious?

Yes, he doesn't have to join the army to be manly even if there is a lot of eye candy there and we need teachers. There's a shortage.

[Neddie]

Not merely kill, but kill to death!

I don't know about you, but I'm a distinct fan of the underkill.

[Gota]

Sleksa in Israel there aren't many spots where the ground is frozen ^^..
Sand is easy to dig in though the Israeli army doesn't do much digging...

Some people should be killed..They are so violent and dumb and used to doing the most atrocious deeds to others from a young age there is nothing you can do with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-kKh-r0P0

It is unfortunate people become such animals and the reasons must be combated but when they do it is too late.

by the way,in the same chapter they show villages and small towns where the "community" spontaneously kills and burns people.

Upertheid in south africa was bad but It seems to have become a truly horrible place now...

[Caydr]

Leaning off topic a bit but Gota struck a chord...

People killing each other over land or commodities is at least... understandable. Or comprehensible. It's horrible, but I can at least imagine a scenario wherein I would possibly attempt to end someone's life. To save other peoples' lives, for instance.

However, and here's where I agree with Gota that some people should just be disposed of like the filth they are, it's different when people intentionally cause animals to suffer.

Hunting for food is one thing - my brother in law does this fairly often and I've thought about going with him. You take a gun, you shoot an animal in a vital spot, if you only injured them you go over and you end their suffering as quickly as possible. A single deer, bear, or other large animal has hundreds of pounds of meat on it, more than enough for a family to not need to buy "industrial meat" for a while year.

IMO it's better to have a life in the wild and then a quick and relatively painless death at the hands of a skilled hunter than it is to live in a "cow factory" until it's your turn to get the CO2 to the forehead.

Then there's people who are cruel to cats and dogs and other domestic animals. Torture. Those people need to die.

You can grow up in a strange land and believe strange things, you can torture a human being because you for whatever reason think they are your enemy. But animals?

Does anyone else find harsh cruelty to animals - creatures that are inherently incapable of even forming allegiances or having rational thought in the first place - more unforgivable than similar acts against humans?

You can at least claim that you think the human "deserved it" for some reason.

[knorke]

People killing each other over land or commodities is at least... understandable. Or comprehensible.

nah thats the most ununderstandable. like you kill these people so that other people live there. wtf? its just different people. </hippie mode>

[Das Bruce]

Knorke, I think he was suggesting it was an us or them situation.

[bobthedinosaur]

Eye for an eye is an endless race.

When I was in the marines there was a joke going around that there are no thieves in the marine corps because we were all just trying to take are shit back that some asshole long long ago took. And has hence caused the endless cycle.

[zwzsg]

You can at least claim that you think the human "deserved it" for some reason.

But that cat pissed on my carpet!

[PicassoCT]

I think killing humans is overrated. After all its just cell-pudding connecting the controllunit(brain) with the technicalsupport(body) - so were lies the archievment in killing such a thing? As a kid i stabbed stranded jellyfishs on a beach- does that make me a killer? Do i get a medall?
There is no reward waiting after the kill, after overcoming that taboo in your brain, just plain, boring life going on. No mystery, no rite of passage, just the same shitty day, now with a bad consience and pts all inclusive.

[Gota]

I think killing humans is overrated. After all its just cell-pudding connecting the controllunit(brain) with the technicalsupport(body) - so were lies the archievment in killing such a thing? As a kid i stabbed stranded jellyfishs on a beach- does that make me a killer? Do i get a medall?
There is no reward waiting after the kill, after overcoming that taboo in your brain, just plain, boring life going on. No mystery, no rite of passage, just the same shitty day, now with a bad consience and pts all inclusive.

Well you seem to be trying to get rid of the bad conscience part.
I see killing a human as a line you cross and from there there is no going back.

[Neddie]

Ah, but does not the motivation/reasoning define the impact of the act?

[bobthedinosaur]

taboos are socially learned and not natural. killing maybe natural but sure makes living in groups harder, hence laws of the land.

[pintle]

stuff

Are you vegetarian (or only eat "ethical" meat), or just a hypocrite? This is one topic that I find incredibly infuriating.