Should I join the US armed forces?
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Campin_Cat
Veteran
Joined: 6 May 2014
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Posts: 25,953
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
The reality is that blacks are less likely to be found in the infantry.
A quick web search finds plenty to back that up.
For example, from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-01-20-army-race-usat-_x.htm:
In all four military branches, black recruits tend to favor support jobs, from mechanic to unit administrator, over traditional combat slots such as infantryman or fighter pilot. That division of labor is well known within the armed forces. But the root causes and the question of whether it's relevant in an age when recruits typically choose their own jobs remain subjects of debate.
Scholars and military personnel specialists say there are several possible explanations for the relatively small number of blacks in jobs that involve dropping bombs and shooting rifles. The most plausible include economic factors, cultural differences and fears that a subtle form of racism has made minorities feel unwelcome, especially in elite units.
Since the Pentagon started the all-volunteer military in the early 1970s, black unemployment has frequently been double the rate for whites. So, for a large number of black recruits, it's important to select military jobs that teach marketable skills.
David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland, says that's probably a good reason more black soldiers don't join infantry units: "There aren't a lot of corporations looking to hire people who fire rifles for a living."
But companies might want to recruit former soldiers who have computer or administrative skills. In fact, blacks greatly outnumber whites as administrative specialists in the enlisted Army: 4,758 to 2,689. Navy statistics are similar: Though blacks make up about 18% of the Navy, they account for 32% of enlisted administrative specialists.
From http://ashbrook.org/publications/oped-owens-02-combat/:
But as Will Rogers once said, "It’s not the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we know that just ain’t true." The claim of disproportionate minority casualties wasn’t true during the Vietnam War, where the record indicates that 86 percent of those who died during the war were white and 12.5 percent were black, from an age group in which blacks comprised 13.1 percent of the population. It is even less true today.
...
While overall, minorities comprise 30 percent of the Army, one of the two services that would be expected to bear the brunt of close combat in Iraq, they tend to be underrepresented in the combat arms. As the incomparable Tom Ricks observed in a January 1997 article for the Wall Street Journal, the "old stereotype about the Army’s front-line units being cannon fodder laden with minorities" is false.
...
On the one hand, white youths are frequently looking for adventure while they try to raise money for college. As a result, they tend to flock to the combat arms, especially elite units like the Rangers and airborne. On the other, young black males, "are generally seeking skills, and so gravitate toward administrative and technical jobs. Because they often find the Army a fairer and better place to live than civilian society, blacks tend to stay enlisted longer: Though only 22% of today’s recruits are black, the Army itself is 30% black."
I don't know I mean if you are desperate I suppose.
I don't have anything against people who join the armed forces.... I know there are benefits.... I know there is some imaginary "cause" (ie.you'll be a pawn in a game).
When you go into armed forces they brainwash you to be a horrible person. Do you want to be a horrible person?
Anyway, think about if for yourself. My dad did basic training. He hated it. But he survived. He doesn't have anything very positive to say about it.
When you are in the military, they strip your identity and create a new one. Do you want to be a pawn in a game?
Whatever, I don't know what I'm talking about, but I think you would be better off just getting a job at Subway!! !!
Lol....
We are not horrible people, we have not been brainwashed, and we do not have new personalities.
Instead, we are mature, decisive, and motivated people who have learned useful skills and self-confidence, and who have simply taken the fast track to responsible adulthood.
What's your excuse?
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Pizzagal3000
Snowy Owl
Joined: 25 Dec 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 152
Location: In The Land Of Quality Music
First of all, you don't know if I were in the military or not! You don't know who I am. I could be a CIA agent. You don't know me.
I would like to see you talk smart like that to soldiers suffering from PTSD.
You haven't the slightest idea what they go thru! You are heartless and close minded. You obviously shun the very idea that this government is working to turn this country into a police state first and then a military state.
They are as subtle as Satan. They will slowly but surely desensitize you thru as many means as they can, such as the tv.
You are just another mind control slave.
WAKE UP! Or maybe you are one of "them."
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I dress anyway want I to, do anything I want to, be anything I want to, cause I got the right to! I is talkin to you(ppl who "oppress" us), boo!----PizzA TimE!! !
First of all, you don't know if I were in the military or not! You don't know who I am. I could be a CIA agent. You don't know me.
I would like to see you talk smart like that to soldiers suffering from PTSD.
You haven't the slightest idea what they go thru! You are heartless and close minded. You obviously shun the very idea that this government is working to turn this country into a police state first and then a military state.
They are as subtle as Satan. They will slowly but surely desensitize you thru as many means as they can, such as the tv.
You are just another mind control slave.
WAKE UP! Or maybe you are one of "them."
Please tone it down, personal attacks are against the rules.
All I'm saying is Subway might be a better option.
My post was a little over the top. Sorry......
How is Subway a better option?
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"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
- Thomas Jefferson
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"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission – which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." – Ayn Rand
This is the funniest thread I've read in years.
Yeah, we come up with some real knee slappers sometimes.
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"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
- Thomas Jefferson