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I'm sorry but some of these kids should have known what they signed up for. Are today's kids just so damned gullible? And what about the parents? Nobody forces your kid to sign on the dotted line. You have to know that when your child joins the Army they will be lied to, shot at, and may be forced to kill people. It's the military, not the Boy Scouts. If you want to travel and see the world you can join the Peace Corps. You can also try to work very hard in school and get scholarships or do AmeriCorps service to get financial grants. If my child wants to join the military I will support them, but I will also let them know honestly what they are getting themselves into so that they will know all the facts. Talk to former soldiers, to veterans, and don't rely on anything that the recruiter says, in making an informed decision. If my child wants to talk to a recruiter I'm going to go with him or her, along with my wife who was in the National Guard. My whole family-in-law has been in the military as well, so they know what they are talking about.

The military is not bad, it's just people don't really know what the military's primary mission is, which is to fight and win wars. Some people are actually made for military life, they like the discipline, the rigidness, and the sense of belonging. Others do not, and are not made for the military, and consequently they will be making a mistake, a personal one, and wasting the military's time. Parents should protect their children from predatory recruiters, and young Americans themselves should not fool themselves into thinking that the military will be their sugar daddy giving them education and lots of money. As Dick Cheney said, "The reason to have a military is to be prepared to fight and win wars.... It's not a social welfare agency, it's not a jobs program."