Very little sympathy from me. Doesn't even sound like post traumatic stress disorder, it sounds more like he just didn't feel like going back and figured since there was a very good chance of him being shot anyway, having someone shoot him while at home would give him a valid reason not to go. Either way, what kind of excuse is post traumatic stress disorder? How many soldiers that end up in life or death situations probably don't have some form of that?

Sorry, last time I looked we haven't reinstated the draft, he voluntarily joined with the knowlege that he may be shipped out. He can't say that he didn't understand upon joining that if he got shipped out he would be shot at and potentially injured or killed.

I can't say I agree with the war, but if you join you are obligated to go where the army wants you to go and do what the army tells you to do, end of story. You can't just join and decide that you suddenly don't like what you signed up for. If you want the option of quitting your job when you feel like it,DON'T join the millitary.

ehunter: Yes, and army recruiters are so honest about what its going to be like when they show up at the high schools.. and on TV and radio ads too.

Yes, and no one has access to the news or internet where you can see the reality of war or joining the milltary.

Every other thread has farkers condemning people for ignorance and stupidty EXCEPT when it comes to a thread about the millitary.
Then it's "Oh, that poor soldier, they didn't understand what what would happen! The recruiters lied!."

Yes, recruiters lie, but anyone with half a brain would research something before they just blindly sign their life away.
I thought about joining the millitary at one time, but there are reasons that I did not do so. Mainly because I didn't feel that I could follow through on devoting several years to something I wasn't completely sure about. I never even talked to a recruiter and I was smart enough to make that decision.

The millitary is not a top secret institution that no one understands the consequences of joining. Recruiters may lie, but anyone that doesn't understand what they are doing when they join the millitary is either extremely ignorant or stupid.
I have several friends that joined the millitary. The recruiters said one thing, and before they joined I talked to them and gave them several articles and sources that explained what would probably happen when they joined, regardless of what the recruiters said. They still used the excuse that "but the recruiters said this." If you take all your information from just one person (the recruiter), and disregard information from several other sources, that still makes you a moron.

Satan_Himself: I can't say I agree with the war, but if you join you are obligated to go where the army wants you to go and do what the army tells you to do, end of story.

Incorrect. An individual's moral obligation supercedes orders from any military commander, as was established in Nuremburg.

Perhaps this fellow agreed to follow the orders of his government based on the Constitution's assertion that government's purpose is to protect the rights of its people. If he discovered in Iraq that his government was placing other interests before the well-being of its populace, he would be morally obliged to end his participation in the military.

I do not know this man and he may have other reasons, but this is not the "end of story".


Those are not the reasons he stated in the article. The reasons stated in the article are that he has post traumatic stress disorder.

While I see what you are saying, I don't think it has bearing on this particular person. He may have the moral beliefs that you've stated, but those aren't the reasons he used for doing what he did.

Bored Horde: Ihaveanevilparrot

He's done a tour of duty.

Sounds like he served his tour in an active combat zone, taking fire and seeing his buddies get blown into pieces so small they scoop bits into the body bag.

He's definitely a coward for realizing after he got home that he'd likely never be back, that the Pentagon would authorize extended tour after tour after tour until they burned every fragment of humanity out of him, then spat him out because they couldn't afford to look after him.

Yeah, definitely a coward. Asshats. I hope your lunch is delicious today in your air-conditioned lunchroom, and your drive to work isn't a terrifying ordeal where you pray someone hasn't buried some old soviet artillery shells into the road to blow you into mush.


Where did I call him a coward?