please help me in my decision.

[US_Marine_CPL_0311]

6 year's of enlisted experience huh? How many wars were you in during those 6 years? I doubt very many if any.

 

[jkotinek]

6 year's of enlisted experience huh? How many wars were you in during those 6 years? I doubt very many if any.

Your shrewd deduction of my combat experience is on target. I have trained at NJRTC and NTC, and will probably be activated out of IRR before my October ETS date. I'm not interested in getting into a ****ing contest with you CPL, but combat experience in not a prerequisite to think or have opinions about the morality of war.

If your conscience permits you to fight, I applaud your courage and offer my humble thanks for anything you do that prtoects my freedom to dissent.

 

[Godlovesusall]

jkotinek, you were in the services? What was your job? What branch were you in? Did you get your GI Bill? PM me so we can talk.

D.

 

[tndrwarrior]

Yes CPL combat experience has nothing to do with this conversation. I applaude you for fighting in whatever wars you have fought in during your military career but this is about the morality of war and like jkotinek said, military experience is not a prerequisite.

jkotinek,
I respect the Orthodox Peace Fellowship organization you are apart of (from what I know about it looking at the website), in fact had you posted this website in the first place, I would have had no problem with your initial post. You are correct in that this weighty decision must be looked at from both sides of the table, but objector.org does not do so fairly. Objectors do what they do for personal reasons, that cannot be consolidated into one coherent arguement that can convince others to object as well. Instead they use generalizations that are mostly lies that have no support.

 

[US_Marine_CPL_0311]

Combat experience has everything to do wtih the morality of war. If you haven't been through it, you wouldn't know now would you? Being a dissenter or a "Conscientious objecter" you wouldn't understand having your friends die in your arms, being shot at. You wouldn't understand the morality of a war, where half the world wants you to suceed and the other half wants your guts ridden across the street because they despise you so much.

Don't tell me it doesn't have anything to deal with morality.

 

[US_Marine_CPL_0311]

jkotinek, you were in the services? What was your job? What branch were you in? Did you get your GI Bill? PM me so we can talk.

D.

Also only you can make your decision. Stop asking everyone else what you should. Make the decision yourself.

 

[Glaz]

Combat experience has everything to do wtih the morality of war. If you haven't been through it, you wouldn't know now would you? Being a dissenter or a "Conscientious objecter" you wouldn't understand having your friends die in your arms, being shot at. You wouldn't understand the morality of a war, where half the world wants you to suceed and the other half wants your guts ridden across the street because they despise you so much.

Don't tell me it doesn't have anything to deal with morality.

Good point. But you don't need to go to war to know its a terrible experience and that peace is preferrable. Too many have died in the past for us to insist that the only way to understand war is to engage in it.

 

[MrsGnomeCrusher]

Also only you can make your decision. Stop asking everyone else what you should. Grow up, make the decision yourself.

I think it's very wise of this person to get various opinions and points of view before making a drastic change in their lives. I did quite a bit of research before I joined the Corps. I applaud anyone who does instead of jumping head first into something they have no clue about.

 

[CRitabe]

Remember that "strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

"Morality" has to do with an individual's personal beliefs and value system. There are many who do not believe that war is the answer to conflict; that is their belief. It doesn't make them good or bad, right or wrong; it only makes them who they are.

Having a comrade die in your arms does not have a lot to do with morality, but much to do with compassion, love and courage. The moral character that you have is what made you choose to be a volunteer for military action. However, it does not make the person whose morals are not the same a weak, immature or immoral person and further taking time, weighing all sides of an issue and asking for advice/opinions is a sign of both strength and wisdom.

 

[US_Marine_CPL_0311]

Good point. But you don't need to go to war to know its a terrible experience and that peace is preferrable. Too many have died in the past for us to insist that the only way to understand war is to engage in it.

Sorry to break your hearts. There is no such thing as "peace" unless you want to talk about the 1000 year reign of Christ. There will never be a Peace because of people like the Islamic Extremeist, Christian Extremeist, just put a religion in front of Extremeist and you'll get my point.

 

[US_Marine_CPL_0311]

Remember that "strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

"Morality" has to do with an individual's personal beliefs and value system. There are many who do not believe that war is the answer to conflict; that is their belief. It doesn't make them good or bad, right or wrong; it only makes them who they are.

Having a comrade die in your arms does not have a lot to do with morality, but much to do with compassion, love and courage. The moral character that you have is what made you choose to be a volunteer for military action. However, it does not make the person whose morals are not the same a weak, immature or immoral person and further taking time, weighing all sides of an issue and asking for advice/opinions is a sign of both strength and wisdom.

I am sorry have you had anyone die in your arms? Someone you cosnider a good friend, someone you went to boot camp with. Someone you went to SOI with. When you do, then you can tell me all about it. It has everything to do with the morality of war.

When something like that happens to you, tell me about your experience. You'll understand where I stand better.

 

[CRitabe]

Cpl:

With all due respect, you do not understand what I am trying to say. You are saying: "the morality of war." What I am saying is that if moral means according to Webster: "pertaining to right conduct", then if a person does not believe that war is right conduct, it would be the "immorality of war."

The war that is going on now is extremely debated and everyone has their own opinion about it; however, I don't believe that there is ANYONE that would debate the sacrifice, the loyalty, the comradeship, the valor, the love for country, ad infinitum of the troops. They are held in my highest esteem and for them my prayers are with them daily. I have not experienced someone dying in my arms in combat - nor will I ever; however, I have had someone die in my arms.

I believe that your holding your comrade in your arms in such a horrible set of circumstances was true "morality of a soldier". How can anyone argue that the moral thing to do in that situation would be exactly what you did.

Hopefully this helps and personally, I'm so sorry that you had to experience such an awful tragedy at your age.

 

[Glaz]

Sorry to break your hearts. There is no such thing as "peace" unless you want to talk about the 1000 year reign of Christ. There will never be a Peace because of people like the Islamic Extremeist, Christian Extremeist, just put a religion in front of Extremeist and you'll get my point.

Whats that got to do with people being able to debate the morality of war?

 

[DeltaJ]

just so you know a tour of duty in the airforce is 9 years brfore you can get out

 

[tndrwarrior]

CPL you need to get over yourself. A lot of people are gracious for your military service, myself included, but bragging about your combat experience is not called for in this discussion. If you have had someone die in your arms, that is a terrible tragedy and I pray that you have been able to recover from the trauma, but does that mean that if you haven't had someone die in your arms your opinion of the morality of war is invalid? So somehow those with purple hearts have been endowed with more knowledge of what is right and wrong than a civilian?