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A career in the forces is still a career, regardless of ethical dimension of fighting a war - and not all the roles available revolve around putting yourself in the firing line directly.
I assume you do approve of the country keeping an army?Yes I do approve of the country keeping an army and I don't have anything against the armed forces, or people having careers in the forces. I just think they should leave the kids alone, as do many others. It doesn't seem that unreasonable: you have to be 18 to drink alcohol but if you're 16 and want to die in some hell hole then sure why not.
If you can't see the difference between recruiting young people into sport (healthy, self-discipline, harmless fun) and the military (designed to kill people, PTSD, IEDs, the stuff I've already posted about how non-adult recruits are statistically more likely to die) I think we'll just need to agree to differ.
Fox-
Football as harmless fun? It's big business my friend. I knew kids who bet their whole life on it, and when it didn't work out they had nothing to fall back on.
Anyway, careers officers doing the rounds is normal, and it doesn't matter one jot if they're from the British Army or the Leprosy Mission: kids are either going to be into it or they're not. The guys at school who ended up in the army were the ones who always wanted to join the army. I don't fundamentally disagree with you, I just think you're selling kids short - the ones who think about their future are more savvy than you make out.
Anyway, it's not for you and me to judge, is it? We should ask someone who's been in the army what they think about it.
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If you can't see the difference between recruiting young people into sport
I'd echo the point about football not being harmless. But equally I don't think they're quite the same.
The_Kindness_of_Trees
hugo7
Well, no, it didn't work, because on leaving the last thing I wanted to do with my life was join the RAF.
A career in the forces is still a career, regardless of ethical dimension of fighting a war - and not all the roles available revolve around putting yourself in the firing line directly.
I assume you do approve of the country keeping an army?
I don't really see the difference between that and football clubs scouting for 13- year-olds.
[I should add that I don't necessarily condone this scheme: I'm just saying that I don't think there's much wrong with offering membership to the Army Cadets to teenagers generally.]