How would you feel if your child were to enlist NOW?

[UdoKier]

How would you feel if your child were to enlist NOW?


Specifically, to serve in BUSH's military, in BUSH's wars.


http://www.objector.org/

[DrWeird]

1. I'd disown him or her.

Same if it were a sibling, parent, whatever.

[UdoKier]

2. I might threaten to.

But I'd be too much of a softy to stick to it very long. My kid would have to be a total Jeffrey Dahmer for me to disown him.

What can I say, I love my kids.

[MuseRider]

6. Me too, I am with you

on this except that being a softie includes wanting them to live enough to hide behind the door and take out their knees with a baseball bat. I would be totally disgusted if they enlisted (I know where they stand on this and they are with me thankfully). After saying that I also must say that they are both the right age for drafting and that also means they are of the age to make their own life decisions. Still, the baseball bat idea would be difficult to stop.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

3. Would have them declared insane. n/t

[stlchic]

4. Impressed that a 4 and 2 year old even knew how...

but seriously, if they were of age, I would be very concerned about why they felt the need to join, particularly considering the direction foreign policy is going.

I could never disown them, and I don't know if I'd be angry. I'm going to try my best to teach my kids to make their own decisions (as much as a child can), so when they are adults, I don't think I could bring myself to convey "Make your own decisions, as long as I agree with them." They would be of age, so I would want to treat them like that. (Of course, that's easy to say NOW, when I'm not faced with the possibility...)

Most of all, I think I'd be concerned and confused.

[KyndCulture]

5. Dealing with this very thing right now

My son turns 17 on March 3rd. Bound and determined sign his enlistment papers for the Marines so he can leave as soon as he graduates... he father and I are divorced. Dad's a repig and mom's a liberal hippie. Dad will sign for him. I'm just sick to my stomach over the whole thing. He will not listen to me.

[MuseRider]

7. I am so sorry.

I answered above and almost did not read further. I am glad I did. Welcome to DU and please know that we will help you in any way we can. This must be killing you. Mine are 19(almost) and 20 and we are terrified.

[KyndCulture]

8. Thank you very much!

He's a bullheaded teenager. His father was 101st Airborne Ranger and my son was born at Fort Campbell... what he won't get through his thick head is that his father served in a time of peace, and yes he got money for college but it was the 80's not NOW.

He's stubborn like all 17 yr old boys, and he's on this kick about pleasing papa, which drives me nuts. He's living with his dad right now for school reasons... but I talk to him everyday. There is no talking him out of it.

what an awful thing for a mommy to say, but I'm hoping he fails a class, no diploma, no enlistment.

[UdoKier]

11. My heart goes out to you.

I served in the 80s, and it certainly was different then. At this age a young man's father is an important role model, and with divorced parents, identifying with dad is a way to assert his manhood.

Do you have a circle of liberal friends who have liberal kids of that age? Maybe take him on a trip over here to the bay area if there is nobody his age of a like mind in your area.

I know tons of young, peacenik Earth First types around here, and their positivity is downright contagious. Does he know kids like this? If he doesn't know them personally, he may be buying the media line that they are just a bunch of dope-smoking hippie losers.

If he was my son, I might offer to secure student loans so that he could go to UC Berkeley or Santa Cruz, someplace where he could learn other ways of thinking.

Just ideas - hope I'm not coming off preachy. I know it must be a tough situation.

[MuseRider]

12. I don't think that is at all

horrible. I would be looking for ways to sabotage it too. Read my post above, I am ready to crack a few bones if that is what it came to. ;)

[frankly_fedup2]

17. Excuse my manners please . . .

I'm so quick to give an opinion that I do not stop and think sometimes either.

First Welcome to DU. Like it was stated above, we are all here for you, and if we can help you we will try.

This is a home to a lot of us who really do not have anyone else to discuss these issues with.

I'm married, my husband and I totally disagree about politics. He doesn't want to hear anything about anything. So when he comes home from work, we talk about our days, and I always have something political to tell him. He finally told me he thinks that is why my nerves are on edge all the time . . . because of watching the news, getting online and researching, talking to others who are politically fanatic. I didn't know doing those things qualified me as a fanatic, but in my hubby's world, I suppose so. He tells me there is nothing I can do about anything that is going on (which really frustrates me, but to a point, he is right . . . I'm just an American citizen like that lady in Ohio said yesterday. We pay our taxes, they take our children to fight their wars if they want them, our vote is the only voice we had, and now we don't even have that. My husband told me that he did not want to hear me talk about politics anymore when he came home. I told him I didn't know that he could tell me what I could or could not talk about. He said he is only thinking of me. Uh-huh! We'll see. He thinks he is in charge, but we all know we let them think that, don't we. (LOL)

Anyway, sorry to go on and on but my posts are never short (sorry). I tend to ramble on but I get passionate about something if I feel it is wrong.

Seriously email or PM me. Maybe we can come up with some ideas for others to point things out to him. He's gonna just put a block in between you and him when you try to talk him out of it.

Is he enlisting with some friends? Sometimes peer pressure is a big part of it too.

Good luck and welcome to DU.

[KyndCulture]

19. Thanks for all the warm welcomes and wishes

My son's dad's whole family is a proud military family. Of his 6 Aunts and Uncles 5 have served, retired or are serving. His grandfather was 30 years in the Navy and his dad was a Ranger... so you see what I'm up against.

I have shown him immense amounts of graphic images (ogrish.com should be enough to make anyone sick)

It's a pride thing I think. They are all very gung-ho. I was in ROTC in college, he's seen the pictures, (I quit and rejected the scholarship when Bush the father was elected) so what I'm up against is military pride, and there really isn't anything wrong with the sense of pride in your country that he's gotten from the other half of the family. I'm glad he feels that respectful toward his aunts, uncles and grandfather and their service.

Being the hippie that I am, and if anyone else is a freak like me you'll understand this statement, he's a Pisces, very much in my favor. He is extremely sensitive to what people think about him. I have one really good hope at the momen and her name is Casey Ann... he's head over heels for this girl, and I think SHE could be the one to talk him out of it. I'll take whatever help I can get, if his GF says don't go, I think he won't... so my plan is to convince Miss Casey to get on board. Does that sound wrong, sicking his own GF on him? He get really mad at me for interfering, but he'll be alive.


I'll keep everyone posted.

[frankly_fedup2]

27. Yeah, when they are that age and a little younger . . .

Their girlfriends are everything to them. If anyone can stop him, it would be his girlfriend. However, on the other side of the family they are really going to be pushing the boy. It's probably stressing him out as far as the pressure they are putting on him. He probably does not know what he wants to do.

If he does join, do not let him join the Reserves. They are really pushing for all of them to join the Reserves rather than the full-time Military. They are promising them big sign-on bonuses up into the thousands. The reason they want to get as many as they can in the reserves is because they do not cover any of their health care, the pay is lower, plus there is no limit as to how long they can keep them there. If he is bound and determined, tell him at least do not join the Reservists. I'd say the majority over there are Reservists, and they are risking their lives just as much as the full-time military.

Plus this Veteran's Hospital BS. I know about Veteran's Hospitals and it is shameful. First you have to be practically homeless before you qualify to get any help. Then the doctors they employ are the foreign doctors that want to practice full-time in the U.S.; however, they must learn the language as well as do a second internship in the U.S. Trust me, I use to be a medical transcriptionist. Anytime someone called and asked me if I wanted to help on an account at a VA Hospital, I told them they could not pay me enough money to listen to these doctors dictate. As an MT, I would have to pretty much make the report myself without even seeing a patient. If it was a normal procedure, I just used a basic template. Forget that.

I have one son myself. Every girl he ever dated he was madly in love with. He had to have a girlfriend. As soon as he broke up with one, he had another one. He was in a terrible car wreck (was in ICU for a week after abdominal surgery for a ruptured spleen, tearing of the lining of the bowel, bruised heart. He has a zipper from below his belly button to the middle of his chest. It happened the same day Dianna got killed in the car wreck in Paris because I was staying in the ICU waiting room and watched it all night on the TV.) I brought that up because he was late picking up his girlfriend for school. He cut in front of another car making a left turn and plowed into him, which it was his fault, but they all were injured pretty bad. It was a nightmare for everyone. Thankfully, everyone survived. My point again was he was so worried about that girl, he was flying to get to her so he wouldn't be that late. By doing so he almost killed himself and two other people.

My aunt always told me this saying and it proves to be true (except with my mother in law). The saying goes, "If you have a daughter, you have a daughter for life, but if you have a son, you have a son until he takes a wife." AMEN to that.

Well, someone else posted another site. You can check it out if you like. <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2810066>

Good luck and keep us up to date. We really do care. (sorry, get carried away once I start)

[peacebird]

22. same situation here in 2000

my son enlisted after his repuke dad played poor poor pitiful me to the boy about being forced to pay half of the college costs. we divorced when the kid was 6 wks old and dad never paid child support but i was determined he would not weasel out of college costs.
my bad.
the boy bought dads tale of woe and joined the Navy.
thank gawd he's out now, thinks bush is an idiot, and thinks his dads political views are assinine as well.
all the best for your kid - maybe make him some "funny" brownies before he goes for his preup whiz-quiz? military has a 1 strike and you're out rule on drugs....

[KyndCulture]

23. Like your thinkin'

Funny brownies sounds like the last ditch effort plan... lol

I wish I could talk him into the Navy, seems safer to me... I always thought they use the marines for cannon fodder, especially the 18 yr old ones.

[frankly_fedup2]

28. That's a good Idea. (nm)

nm

[Yuugal]

13. Show him the footage

Make a nice compilation email or if he is with you just haul him to your pc and show him every bad film and photo you can find. Stuff like the torture pics, wounded and dead Iraqis, wounded and dead US personnel, the works. Do your best to make him understand that he can end up dead or wishing he was dead. Let him know about depleted uranium, gulf war syndrome, and why low level radiation isn't his friend. You are trying to save his life. You have 3 months left to talk him out of it.

Let him know 60k for college sounds great until you picture your self attending class with no limbs, or with cancer, or with such mental trouble that learning is 1000 times harder. Also let him know that he will be kept there much longer than he is signing up for.

I wish you the best of luck.

[frankly_fedup2]

16. Maybe you could sit down and ask him (you probably already have) . . .

why he feels so strong about going into the military? I wouldn't bring up his father or his fathers' opinions. He will think you are blaming his father for his decision. Keep dad and his warped beliefs out of the whole conversation.

the horrors of the war over there . . . for our military as well as for the Iraqi innocents.

One thing I have always thought I would ask my son if he ever came to me and said he wanted to join the military now, was I would ask him . . . could you actually kill another human being? It's easy to say yes and be all macho, but when it got down to it, could they do it? Cause if you have a millisecond of a second thought about it, you will be the one that is dead. Also, is this a just war? If it were a war were the only hope for the people were the American Military moving in and helping the people, are we protecting the U.S. from invasion? There can be just wars, I suppose, however, this is a slaughter of people because we came on their soil to steal their oil, and the terrorists have moved in to kill our troops.

I laugh when I hear Bush, Rumsfield (he's a real piece of work, huh?), or any other member of the Bush Administration say that because of Bush, and his leadership, we have had no other attacks. I feel like writing them going, "Well, DUH! They have almost 150,000 Americans close to home, they can pick off one, two, three a day. They don't care how they do it, how many, but just as long as they are killing Americans. Our troops over there are nothing but target practice for these terrorists. Unfortunately, the Iraqi people are stuck in the middle and have been slaughtered. Even the terrorists, who are fellow Muslims, are killing their own people. I thought the Koran said they would go to Hell for that. Obviously, they have a different kind of Koran, just like Bush and his Administration a reading a different Bible than I have.

It's like one of the stories posted today pretty much said it all. There is a new name for "bigotry" . . . it's called "Values."

Thank the Good Lord my son has never wanted to go into the military. He is 26, married, and has an 18-month-old baby boy. Now I worry about my grandson and what future will be there for him.

[Demeter]

9. Like I wasted 18 years and 9 Months

and took great risks with health, marriage and economic situation, for nothing.

[Mari333]

10. Believe me, its hell to have a kid in Iraq.

Pure, unadulterated hell.

[cheezus]

14. at this point, even the guardsmen know what they're signing up for

if that's what they want, so be it

[davidinalameda]

15. since my kids have 4 feet and tails

I doubt they'd be enlisting

but I have a 21 year old niece and I could see her doing something like this in order to pay for med school or her boyfriend doing the same thing

I'd be beside myself with worry--I'd tell them to enlist in the air force or navy and not the army or marines if they insisted on going ahead with it

[kcass1954]

18. A moot point in our house - not gonna happen!

I have an 18-yo son who will graduate from HS in June. He has already told his dad's repug sister that there is no effin way he would go fight in "an illegal and immoral war".

Patting myself on the back right now for raising a kid with such good morals and common sense!

[UdoKier]

21. The repukes would say you raised an immoral kid.

After all, he used the 'f' word, and that's what morals are all about, right?

[DemBones DemBones]

20. I would know that someone had stolen my child's identity

and was very cleverly disguised.

[donheld]

24. I could not "disown" anybody. Hell I've never owned anybody

but i would still be very upset. IMHO the US military is the worst place in the world for anyone.

[logosoco]

25. My 9th grade daughter brought home an NG "brouchure" yesterday...

They were at her school to discuss "career choices".I think she tried hiding it from me, but it ended up on the kitchen table. So we discussed it, she said she would not join up (she has scoliosis,and a hearing loss, so i hope she is not draftable.)
My son is 13, when he was born, i thought the service would be good for him, (he likes routine), but that was during the clinton admin. My kids know now that they should not be fodder for bush and his ilk. But i guess if they were 18, they are going to make their own choices, and i just have to hope i taught them well (and that the world is a better place by then!)

[Johonny]

26. Tell him to join the Navy

It's safer. Or tell him to goto a military school. 4 years of officer training and pray these morons are out when he graduates. An Airforce officer with a science background has good chance at domestic service.