Changing Tides

[color="#cc8899"]I disagree Eos - the people that will truly learn something lifechanging from the military tend to seek it out regardless, or to learn it in some fashion outside the military otherwise. There are still a large number of people who join for financial or educational reasons (or others) that don't really care about bettering themselves, only their standing in life. There's nothing wrong with that, but I feel that most people would fall into that second camp if forced to join - they'd grumble and gripe for the entirety of their service and come out with very little noticeable change. Years later in their life they may finally be able to learn something from the experience, but at that point any other experience in life has an equal chance of influencing them.

I'm also much more inclined to trust people that joined of their own free will to do their job faithfully and correctly than those forced to do it - my opinion, while founded almost entirely on experiences of my own and those shared with me by other service members, is that people who are forced to do something that they don't want to will do it half-assedly, grudgingly, or possibly pretend that they did it and leave it at that.

I do believe that there are many people who would benefit from some form of experience like the military brings - mission trips, the peace corps, even volunteer work (I mean actual work, not high school Key Club or National Honor Society events, though those are respectable as well) are good alternatives for those opposed to military service or unable to join. They all bring similar challenges, team-building experiences, and a fair bit of self-sacrifice and hardship.

I'm also glad that my experiences have led to a bit of positive discussion - it's nice to have started something good as opposed to a long, drawn-out, circular argument for once.[/COLOR]