Something that I've not seen your or John B. mention, and I've brought up before. The mental aspect of warfare.

I'm not sure about you, but from John's comments, he's probably very close to my age. My year was the last the ran the lottery for the draft for Vietnam. But they never actually drafted my class. I was in college when vets started coming home. So I saw some Vietnam vets in college.

They were easily identifiable. You could clearly see something was different about them from the rest of the student population. Obviously, there could have been other students who returned from Vietname who didn't stand out. But there were many who did.

Then we started to see reports of the psychological disorders these soldiers were suffering from.

Now, they started reporting on stress disorders early on. How the Army was recognizing them, and trying to get soldiers to see someone if they are having coping problems.

What benefit is there to society to creating a class of people who will exhibit problems for potentially the rest of their lifes?


>Now I see your logic. Reading your posts, I misunderstood and took you to imply that the military is the most dangerous job in America. I agree with Beth - unless we are involved in major combat, percentages alone prove that inaccurate. I will also state that in most cases, I truly believe that most soldiers are better trained than any other field. I write that because soldiers perform the tasks involved in their jobs (mos) or even basic soldier skills over and over ad naseum until they can do it in their sleep (which may very well be necessary if involved in a conflict and you haven't slept for 36 hours) and THAT saves lives.
>
>>You said this:
>>"the military is no more dangerous than MOST other professions"
>>
>>Of course there are other gigs that are more dangerous - but MOST other professions are not.
>>
>>
>>>Have you looked at the internet for dangerous jobs? I did a google and found 2 different sites that list 10 of the most hazardous jobs.
>>>
>>>http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/13/pf/dangerousjobs/
>>>http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/03/0903worksafe.html
>>>
>>>how many jobs other then the military have over 1 million (not sure of the exact number) employed at the same time? Timber cutters lost 84 out of 100,000 in 2002.
>>>
>>>>You said this:
>>>>"the military is no more dangerous than most other professions"
>>>>
>>>>I'm not sidestepping anything by saying I think you're wrong and that is ridiculous. (yeah my spelling stinks...heh)
>>>>
>>>>What other professions here in the USA lost 105 people last month due to the nature of the job, hummm? I assure you that "most other professions" did not loose 105 people due to the nature of their job. What does this have to do with driving your car? ...unless you're a truck driver or something....
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>Again, without side-stepping the argument:
>>>>>
>>>>>Statistics show that you have a greater chance of being killed or seriously injured by driving your car than you do by being in the military. Therefore, driving is more dangerous than being in the military.
>>>>>
>>>>>P.S. The word is "ridiculous"
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>Tamar:
>>>>>>>... the military is no more dangerous than most other professions.....
>>>>>>
>>>>>>That's ridicilious.