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Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

chrisseaton.com

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Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#61

Post by hunterb123 »

namelessoracle wrote: post #47
hunterb123 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not welfare, you put work in, it's a great route for many people. It set my entire family along their career paths. I wouldn't really recommend it while warhawks are in charge, but generally it's a nice route to take.

Many other social welfare programs require you to do X or Y to keep receiving benefits as well. From a societal level its absolutely used as a social welfare program to create opportunities for lower class individuals to advance. Thats even used as a part of their recruitment pitch! If you can handle the military service its well known that its a very easy way to make 6 figure salary is to join the military get a hig…

Most social welfare programs have limitations as requirements, which has a negative effect. It keeps people content with the welfare because if they work they no longer qualify for it. A lot of the time the welfare will pay similar to a job so they won't bother with the slight increase.

The military you put your 4 years in, you get your experience, and you earn your GI bill for further education (or you go into private security or whatever your job in the military was).

I've known people who went into programming after doing it in the military. Chefs, airline pilots, IT analysts, etc.

It's more of a jobs program than a welfare program.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#62

Post by basisword »

>> I originally joined the British Army full-time after finishing my masters in computer science at Bristol in 2007. At the time, the campaign in Afghanistan was in full-swing, and the campaign in Iraq was still running. All my peers were going into office jobs in London but I still wanted more fresh air at that point in my life.

I just cannot understand this mindset. "I wanted to see the world so instead of taking a gap year I thought I'd go to the middle-east and do a bit of invading".

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#63

Post by salawat »

h2odragon wrote: post #3

> we emphasise explaining the context two levels up. I may tell my soldiers to raid a compound, but I would also tell them that the reason for this is to create a distraction so that the Colonel can divert the enemy away from a bridge, and that the reason the Brigadier wants the Colonel to divert the enemy is so that the bridge is easier to cross. many organizations could benefit from more of that.

That's how I do things with my group. How do you expect people to learn to see the bigger picture if you never admit or make them aware there is one in the first place?

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#64

Post by [deleted] »

Justsignedup wrote: post #49

The saddest thing is the #1 reason why people join the military in the US is financial or college assistance. Shows why the US is so hesitant to provide UBI or Free college. We'd lose one of our biggest recruiting tools. If the US Military can appropriately show why people should be enthusiastic about joining, I'd be much more positive about it. Also I have ex-military friends... Getting that college funding isn't ea…

[deleted]

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#65

Post by pjc50 »

loxs wrote: post #53

The most bizarre thing in the article for me (as a total layman) is that linked Jackal vehicle[1]... It's an armored vehicle which does not protect the... crew??? Why is it armored at all? Why are they not just using a Toyota Hilux instead of this 7 tonne monster? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackal_(vehicle)

It is basically a big technical, isn't it?

It appears to be the replacement for the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snatch_Land_Rover , which got its name from the use by military units grabbing civilians off the street in Northern Ireland.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#66

Post by [deleted] »

basisword wrote: post #62

>> I originally joined the British Army full-time after finishing my masters in computer science at Bristol in 2007. At the time, the campaign in Afghanistan was in full-swing, and the campaign in Iraq was still running. All my peers were going into office jobs in London but I still wanted more fresh air at that point in my life. I just cannot understand this mindset. "I wanted to see the world so instead of taking a…

[deleted]

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#67

Post by AllegedAlec »

basisword wrote: post #62

>> I originally joined the British Army full-time after finishing my masters in computer science at Bristol in 2007. At the time, the campaign in Afghanistan was in full-swing, and the campaign in Iraq was still running. All my peers were going into office jobs in London but I still wanted more fresh air at that point in my life. I just cannot understand this mindset. "I wanted to see the world so instead of taking a…

You're exactly the kind of tech person he felt like needing to explain this to.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#68

Post by PoignardAzur »

The author is... very nonchalant about the ethical aspect of his calling.

From the sanitized language (the "destroys the enemy through mounted close combat" euphemism kind of glosses over the killing part of said combat), to the almost smug dismissal of pacifists, I'm seeing a lot of rhetoric being put into deflecting the criticisms of the military without actually addressing them.

Like... the author mentions the Peterloo Massacre, the Boer War, and the Iraq War, and completely blows past them, and then goes on to explain how good the military is at building character and stuff. And I have no doubt it's true, but somehow I don't think Iraqis were especially thrilled to know the foreign troops occupying their country were from socially and economically diverse backgrounds.

Speaking as someone who supports my own country's government, mostly supports my country's military involvement abroad, and would enroll (hopefully) without hesitation if our territory were invaded, I've considered taking military-related jobs in the future, and I still might.

But if I did, it would be because I decided the positive outcomes of France's military interventions outweighs the negatives; which, given our past exactions, and the current state of Lybia, is... not at all obvious. My moral calculus certainly wouldn't be "on the one hand we're destabilizing poorer countries for cheap oil, but on the other hand the army sure pushes me out of my comfort zone and that's great".

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#69

Post by abduhl »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #37
abduhl wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re just complaining. The world exists as it does now and broad generalized complaints like yours are often used to support positions which actively harm those you purport to help. Say we take away the military on-ramp to class mobility. What can we do for those trapped in poverty whose only ticket out was enlistment? Your answer should be focused on what we can practically do as the world stands now, not in your…

Things don't get better if you don't complain. All of my siblings have come back from military service (marines, army rangers, navy) worse off, and the benefits in no way compensate them for what they lost. I recommend it to no one. The best military service is the service you did not perform. The VA is notorious for being terrible. The US has non profits for wounded/disabled veterans because care and support (most i…

The military is no picnic and it’s no savior. It’s not billed as a day spa and the people who join up are without question taken advantage of. It’s hard on many families, including mine and yours apparently. Support isn’t there once you’re out. Support probably isn’t there while you’re in either.

But there’s nowhere else to go for someone stuck in the cycle of poverty. They don’t have money. They go to one of the few places that still recognizes that cash isn’t the only currency the young have to give and offer their bodies and lives. If you’re just as likely to get shot in the streets of Chicago as overseas, well you might as well get your tuition paid for.

The groups you support (progressives, similar PACs, politicians) have recently started telling the world about how poverty is systemic and how useless poor people’s actions are in the face of such a fucked up system, so how can you sit here and tell me that these people need to find a new way to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps while taking away their army issued boots?

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#70

Post by jokethrowaway »

That's great and I'd love to defend my country.

I don't care about doing missions somewhere else in the world though. War is mostly killing random people just because politicians decided so and it would be impossible if stealing money from people through taxes wouldn't be so widespread, easy and accepted. The cost of war is always socialised and it's huge.

I think the ideal way to defend society is to teach everyone how to fight, allow people to own guns and have a small army branch to do monitoring / deploy army leaders to assemble people when the enemy is approaching and organise local combat. There are tons of things to consider (think about airborne / naval defense) but that's something we can figure out, without having to steal profits for people and funnelling in war machines that are rarely used for defense. I'd be happy to chip in money to make sure we have anti-air weapons to fight the neighbouring country fighter jets, in case they invade us.

Instead what's happening is that the government spend my money, buy weapons and then give them to the Taliban, another country or use them to go and kill people in the middle east - without me having any say on the topic. The top-down approach of the army and its reliance on corrupted governments makes it so that soldier are, most of the times, just an armed gun for the mafia you call government.

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