Military recruiters tour the country selling a dangerous product with glamorous ads, just like tobacco companies or drug pushers. The ads promise opportunity and adventure -- but don't believe the hype.

1. Joining the military is hazardous to your education.

The military isn't a generous financial aid institution, and it isn't concerned with helping you pay for school. Two-thirds of all recruits never get any college funding from the military. Only 15% graduated with a four-year degree.

What about going to school while you're in? Many GIs report that military life leaves them too busy and exhausted -- and doesn't really make time for them to go to class.

2. Joining the military is hazardous to your future.

Joining the military is a dead end. After you've spent a few years in the military, you're 2 to 5 times more likely to be homeless than your friends who never joined. And, according to the VA, you'll probably earn less too. The skills you learn in the military will be geared to military jobs, not civilian careers; when you come out, many employers will tell you to go back to school and get some real training. As former Secretary of Defense Cheney declared, "The reason to have a military is to be prepared to fight and win wars...it's not a jobs program."

3. Joining the military is hazardous to people of color.

During the Gulf War, over 50 percent of front-line troops were people of color. Overall, over 30 percent of enlisted personnel but only 12 percent of officers are people of color, who are then disciplined and discharged under other than honorable conditions at a much higher rate than whites. When recent studies showed a slight dip in young African-Americans' (disproportionately high) interest in the military, the Pentagon reacted with a new ad campaign. They're targeting Latino youth with special Spanish-language ads. The recruiters' lethal result: tracking high achieving young people in communities of color into a dead-end, deadly occupation.

4. Joining the military is hazardous to women.

Sexual harassment and assault are a daily reality for the overwhelming majority of women in the armed forces. The VA's own figures show 90 percent of recent women veterans reporting harassment - a third of whom were raped. Despite the glossy brochures that advertise "opportunities for women," the military's inherent sexism is evident from sergeants shouting "girl!" at trainees who don't "measure up," to the intimidation of women who speak out about harassment and discrimination - not to mention military men's sexual abuse of civilian women in base communities.

5. Joining the military is hazardous to your civil rights.

If you aren't willing to give up your rights, the military isn't for you. Once you enlist, you become military property: you lose your right to come and go freely, you're ordered around 24 hours a day, and you can be punished by your command without trial or jury. Free speech rights are severely limited in the military. You can be punished for being honest about being lesbian, gay or bisexual. Worst of all even if you hate your job, you can't quit.

6. Joining the military is hazardous to your health.

The military can't guarantee you'll be alive at the end of your eight-year commitment: they can't even promise you won't be desperately ill from "mystery illnesses" like those of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. Whether it's atomic testing in the 1950s, Agent Orange during the war against Vietnam, or experimental vaccines and toxic weapons in the Persian Gulf, the military shamelessly destroys the health of its personnel -- and then does its best to downplay and ignore their suffering.

7. Joining the military is hazardous to the environment.

The US military is the single largest and worst polluter in the world, from toxins at bases to nuclear-tipped missiles to the destruction of ecosystems from South Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. And in today's military, the tanks and weapons are coated with depleted uranium from toxic nuclear waste!

8. Joining the military is hazardous to our lives.

The "adventure" in the commercials is code for war, the "discipline" code for violence. The military trains recruits to employ deadly force, yet recruiters rarely discuss the dehumanizing process of basic training, the psychological costs of killing, or the horrors of war.

The ads lie because the product is lethal -- not just to you, but to all of us.

For more information contact or write:

Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors:

630 20th Street #302,
Oakland, CA 94612
510-465-1617
Fax 510 465-2459

or

1515 Cherry Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-563-8787
Fax 215-567-2096

Argue.... I mean, debate.

What makes you say that?

There are a bunch of Med MOSs in the Army. I never considered the medical field so I only know what my old roomate told me. He said its a pretty laid back field depending on your unit. You can talk to a recruiter and ask about med jobs. But be careful, cause recruiters will push you to join.

I joined the Marines and I'm pretty chill with my decision

My unit's pretty laid-back, we're just a bunch of techies sitting around until we start deploying for Afghanistan (which equals hazard pay which equals more money). I get 80 grand for college when I leave so that's not too shabby either

Also, sorry for volunteering

Sup Devil.
I smell yellow paint!

Haha, I kid, I kid.

Is the Hazard pay the same in Iraq as it is in Afghanistan now? Or do they still get less in Iraq?


Yuck!!! Marines.
Im just playing. Not really.

It's not any less. If it is, then it's news to me.


We're conditioned to believe that the Marine Corps is superior to other branches of service. I must admit that I agree.

I have never met a decent marine that was sane or not a complete douche bag alcoholic/ nut


Can someone please prove to be otherwise?!

^brandon?

Oh i thought he was in the Navy...

We sure are a department of the Navy

Minus 5

Well I am going to answer them via experience now.....

1. Joining the military is hazardous to your education.

It all depends on your motivation, you don't have to give up your education to join the military. I joined for money for my higher education, and I am doing online classes right now while I am serving my time (2 years).

2. Joining the military is hazardous to your future.

Since I am living life day by day, I have no idea how my service is going to impact my future. As of now, I love what I do. I do plan on going to law school after 4ish years in the service. You have to decide if you want to make your service 20 years or 2-4 years. It's your decision.

3. Joining the military is hazardous to people of color.

I am white so I don't know anything about this.

4. Joining the military is hazardous to women.

I have a penis so I also lack knowledge in this department.

5. Joining the military is hazardous to your civil rights.

It all depends on your sergeants/officers. I keep my mouth shut so I can get promoted, but I know sergeants and other NCO's that say what they want whenever they want. You don't all the sudden become a silent person. You just need to know when to say it, who to say it around and the context of what you say.

6. Joining the military is hazardous to your health.

I get free health care, if I need a perscription filled I walk inside the hospital and show the pharmacy my ID, I get brand name medications for free. Most of the people here don't realize what it costs for health care because they still piggy back off mom and dad.

7. Joining the military is hazardous to the environment.

You get in a car everyday, we do some crazy shit, but I can tell you 100% what we do gets cleaned up by privates.

8. Joining the military is hazardous to our lives.

Yea, it is. We understand that and live with that fear everyday. I haven't been to war (I have a desk job) so I can't tell you how it feels to be in a extremely dangerous situation. On that note, I would be willing to give my life for the people around me, once you live with people like yourself (AKA your battles) you would do anything to keep them alive.

2 YEARS?!?!?! They got me for 4. Im killing everyone at MEPS.


The way the economy is sucking, I might do 20. Its like getting paid to play "Simon Says".


Im black. The military isnt hazardous to my health. Iron Mikes are.


All the females in my unit outrank me. (There is only one female though)


Maybe the military is hazardous to my civil rights


I dont even remember the last time I paid for a hospital bill. WOO-HOO!!!!!


Yeah. They always got me cleaning sh*t.


Breaking News from PFC Rhodes all the way from Iraq: "Iraq is easy. Afghanistan is hard. Either way it goes, I get tax free money. Army Strong. HOOAH!!!"

You could have been a man and joined the Marine Corps.

I kid, I kid.

Honestly, unless you're willing to become a full fledged, heartless, sociopath; I'm sure you did what's best for you.

Eyyyy now, my brother is a Marine.

government be ripping you a new one... with your pay...so small... i laugh at 's in uniform... they think because they wear a uniform... they are better... when in fact a person who isn't wearing one makes 3 times as much... true the uniform gets you more pussy.. but it also get's you a bullet in your ass killed.... think about it....

That has to be the dumbest thing I've heard anyone ever say about the military. It shows how little you know.

The pay isn't great, but its guaranteed. So if the economy takes a dive, the people without uniforms will be assed out while people like me have a guaranteed pay, a place to live, food to eat, and clothes on our back.

*Looks at ass*
Im in Iraq. No bullet yet.

I've been out here since August. What FOB are you on?

Firefights are short-lived and overrated. Getting to a decent vantage point, and catching someone in your scope is what's really good. The only real concern I have out here are IEDs.

Murder can never be justified.

What the hell are you talking about? Are you implying that a combat kill is the equivalent to murder?

FOB Hammer. This place sucks. Im not concerned about IEDs anymore. We got those MRAPs, and we haven't lost a single one yet.


I think you support terrorism.

Well murder can't be justified that is true but how do you explain it in a case where stuck fighting for your life.
as in
either u kill him or he kills you?
is it justified then?

You don't even have to begin to think of how killing someone in combat is justifiable. It isn't murder. Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with a state of mind known as "malice aforethought". Don't use words to describe something if you do not know the definition or power of that word.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/murder