This may sound like a strange topic for someone like me, but joining the U.S. Marine Corp has become a serious option to me and I am wondering if anyone here is or has been a Marine. I am really scared about joining the military, and advice and comfort couldn't be any more welcome.
Know what you are getting into. If you join the marines right now, you better be commited to the war on terrorism. And you should understand a bit of history. History which you are unlikely to finds in school.
WWII -- Many Americans and Europeans did not condemn Hitler rebuilding the German military before that war, even though it was in direct violation of the treaty Germany was forced to sign as a result of their instigation in the First World War, the Versailles Treaty.
Further, there were protesters even back then to our helping out of Britain as she was getting brutally bombed by the Germans. These people are called "isolationists".
After Pearl Harbor the sentiment vastly changed. We entered that great war and fought for some very noble causes.
Today, many people condemn us not only for fighting in that war, but for winning it. Because many people within our own country and without hate America. These people primarily hate America because America represents the core Christianity of the West.
the Korean War -- Few wars in history have been fought for more noble reasons then the Korean War. Once again, a minority, the South Koreans, were being crushed by the Soviet Union through North Korea. After decades of ruthless enslavement the Koreans had just been able to take a breath... before their own brothers came in and started slaughtering them to force upon them sheer, ruthless totalitarianism.
Yet, today, many condemn us even for that.
the Vietnam War -- There are few differences between the Vietnamese War and the Korean. Once again, the SOviet Union was dividing a nation and forcing a brutal campaign against the South Vietnamese. We came to their aid. We fought poorly... instead of bombing the North like we could have we listened to threats from the Soviet Union and kept it a ground war. Largely this can be attributed, however, to a growing anti-American sentiment within our own country.
When we pulled out of Vietnam... the entire region of Southeast Asia collaped. Tens of millions of people died as a result of this. They were brutally slaughtered in Cambodia and Vietnam. Many Vietnamese and Cambodians fled to the US to literally escape with their lives.
To this day Vietnam remains totalitarian Communist as does Laos. Cambodia has since become freed, ironically, with the help of Laos, but largely because the brutal campaign there was simply so severe -- per capita, it was the worst genocide in history.
And, to this day, the people who supported the Viet Cong under the guise of "peace" have largely been able to control how these events appear. These young elites at the time had moved on to positions of power in every strata of society.
Shamelessly, they have never looked back. We as a nation have never truly looked back. The European nations who stood with these hippies never looked back. Great devastation was wrought... the West turned against the poor South Vietnamese... and no one looked back.
Instead, ever since, the "peace" movement has been largely praised in Western society. Effectively, these people did the very same thing over the Rwandan and Sudanese genocies as well -- though in these cases no one actually helped out (or has yet). If anyone did help out in these genocides from the West, if casualities were taken, then - believe me - the West would be up in arms over it. And they would call themselves "heroes" for doing so.
So, that is what you are going into.
All that said, here is the truth. Yes, our country considers national defense before acting. With both Korea and Vietnam we could say we wanted to stop the rise of Communism. But, the men on the ground, and even the leaders who led us into these wars understood that all men and women deserve to have the same freedoms we have here.
One freedom the totalitarianists of the world does not want anyone to have is the freedom to be a Christian. Be that totalitarian an Islamist, a Nazi, or a Communist -- they are all in agreement there.
You may very well have to face negative sentiment from some people in the world, even while you know you are striving for what is right. But, you will join the call to be a hero, to fight for truth, and that is what call you should answer. Is there a more noble pursuit in the world?
My bad! 
