<p>Overwhelmingly the tone on the thread is to be informed and not to be pressured by recruiters. That doesn’t imply a lack of respect for those who made a choice to join. </p>
<p>Indeed several posters on this thread have been in the military, but it is my impression they now realize what a hasty choice they made & they hope their own childs choice will be more informed.</p>
<p>Bus driver…post 106 is the one you missed.</p>
<p>And emeraldkity4…Althought the numerous vets I currently know are officers, West Pointers, and retired, none of them regret their choices. I would add that my father, brother, father-in-law, among others have also served our county without regret.</p>
<p>I didn’t say they regretted their choice. By hasty I meant they admitted there were things they hadn’t considered.</p>
<p>I’m with you there, shrinkrap. When I was commissioned, I was comfortable with the fact that I might be required to kill and die for my country. But I was naive enough to think I was never going to get married and have children. And then be required to leave my baby. The idiocy and immaturity, we think we know it all at that young age, but I knew nothing.</p>
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Except that post 106, while offensive, says nothing of the sort.</p>
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<p><a href=“Post%20#106”>QUOTE=vicariousparent</a>I am grateful we have people in this country who voluntarily join the armed forces.</p>
<p>I am very grateful that my daughter has no interest in that career.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with my position on war in general, or any specific war. It has everything to do with the fact that I don’t want my kid to be blown up. If someone must die, let it be someone else’s kid.
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Not to defend vicariousparent, but she really didn’t suggest that she would be happy to see anyone’s kid come home in a box.</p>
<p>Reading this thread I was reminded of the Band Aid song written to raise money for the Ethiopian famine “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” and the lyrics “Well, tonight thank God, it’s them instead of you.” We had a discussion this year when it came on in the car one night about how that wasn’t a very Christian sentiment.</p>
<p>You are absolutely right, emeraldkity, there were things we didn’t consider. And I regret not getting out of the military when I found out I was pregnant. You could do that in those days, but I felt it would be dishonorable to use that to get out of my commitment. Plus, it was peacetime, why worry? In retrospect, it would have been the responsible thing to do. I sometimes worry whether the bulk of the two years my son was raised by a babysitter affected him.</p>
<p>Post 106 is not meant to be disrespectful in any way, certainly it doesn’t mean that someone wants American soldiers to come home in a box. I don’t see how anyone can see it as anything but a parent doesn’t want their child to die. Who among us could honestly declare that if someone’s child has to die, it might as well be their own? You would either have to be a suicide bomber or an unloving parent to care no more about your own child dying than someone elses. I don’t think that one parent here on cc is like that. We’re all here because we cherish and are (overly) involved in our children’s welfare.</p>
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<p>so my argument was “poland couldn’t defend itself” and your counter-argument is that “poland was already occupied”?? interesting.</p>
<p>Moderator’s Note:</p>
<p>The discussion has moved beyond education issues, closing.</p>