Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

photochemsyn wrote: post #131

The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the service. Hopefully you won't be used in ridiculous debacles like the 2003 Iraq Invasion, based on lies about WMDs pushed by Washington (and see British role as well), but you'll have no say in the matter. The other thing to realize is that, at least in the USA, they…

> at least in the USA, they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training

Explain this please. Are you a veteran? I am and this doesn't correspond with my experience.

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

#202

Post by 8note » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

ethbr0 wrote: post #31

watwut wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik, soldiers don't get to choose. The queens enemies is pretty much good description, because his guess is as good as yours.

+1. Part of being part of a national military is subordinating your desires to the chain of command, which in a democracy usually flows to the highest elected official. If one wants to pick and choose "right" conflicts, one shouldn't serve. And ultimately... while I know HN has a pretty anti-authority bend... if you don't trust your government to deploy military power, what do you trust them for? Which isn't saying t…

I'd consider deploying the military to be a much higher bar of trust than building and maintaining roads and tax policies, providing healthcare and education, etc.

I don't trust the government to use force responsibly, especially on people who are not part of a social contract with it. The government's authority comes from the consent of the governed, not by force

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

#203

Post by scottlamb » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

qgin wrote: post #185

photochemsyn wrote: post #131

The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the service. Hopefully you won't be used in ridiculous debacles like the 2003 Iraq Invasion, based on lies about WMDs pushed by Washington (and see British role as well), but you'll have no say in the matter. The other thing to realize is that, at least in the USA, they…

https://news.gallup.com/poll/186527/americans-government-hea... > Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance…

> Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance…

Sounds about right to me. The VA health care system has problems [1] but on the whole doesn't seem worse than the rest of the US healthcare system, maybe better.

Anecdote: when my dad retired, my parents lost their insurance through his work, and my mom wasn't eligible for Medicare yet. They looked around at individual insurance options, which were horrible. My mom ended up using her VA benefits and was very glad to have them. The VA has treated my parents quite well, although the VA doesn't seem used to having a lot of female patients my mom's age.

[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/veterans-affairs-backlog...

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

#204

Post by simonh » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

basisword wrote: post #72

simonh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it does. Was Afghanistan better off before the pull out, or now under the Taliban? Iraq is a mess, sure, but at least nobody is gassing whole cities and we can be immensely proud of the liberation of Kuwait although that was more than 20 years ago. Right now we are providing vital military assistance to Ukraine, and I wish we were doing a lot, lot more. The failures were political ones. Militarily the army did th…

>> Was Afghanistan better off before the pull out, or now under the Taliban? Why is that the comparison? The comparison should be was Afghanistan better off before we invaded in the first place. And committed war crimes. And radicalised a tonne of people who then came into Europe to murder civilians. You'd have to do mental somersaults to justify the Iraq + Afghanistan wars and think they were the right choice.

There was no shortage of radicals coming to Europe already. I think the lesson from all of our engagement and lack of it in the Middle East, and beyond, is you can’t not be engaged. It will come and kick you in the arse whether you like it or not. For all the problems our interventions might have caused, our attempts to disengage have caused as many if not more problems.

I suspect anyone who thinks our withdrawal from Afghanistan, and abandoning its people to their fate is the end of our problems in that direction is going to be sadly disappointed.

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

#205

Post by notch656a » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #193

YATA1 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>especially in the upper classes where people do not need to serve This is a often repeated myth. The upper class serves more per capita than the lower class.

sure, but not in combat roles and while sure, those 6 or 8 or whatever out of 10 army people per 1 grunt do contribute a lot, they don't get shot at. no risk, all reward

Yeah because no one in a logistics or support role was ever awarded a purple heart /s.

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

#206

Post by howmayiannoyyou » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #155

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a bit of invading. The world doesn't work the way you wish it did. Atrocities are prevented and security is maintained through action and credible deterrence. This requires men and women willing or conscripted into service. Would be great if none of this were necessary, but it's simply not how the world works and there is ample historical evidence of what happens when a country lowers its guard. As I type this Germ…

There is ample historical evidence that having an army to send into war makes the world less safe, not more. If the US army in particular had a clear conscience, why would the US oppose the International Criminal Court in The Hague? Telling your soldies that their war crimes will go unpunished is a great way to invite them.

I don't know what you mean by 'safe' but I'd rather be unsafe than Tibet or Hong Kong who had no defense forces to resist Chinese annexation.

The ICJ is a political entity for political convenience. Its not the neutral arbiter of truth you wish it were.

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

#207

Post by inopinatus » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

If you peer at the photo very carefully you can see that the author is not in fact holding operations orders, but hard copy of a long discussion from bugs.ruby-lang.org regarding optimizations of the third implicit context

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

#208

Post by mywittyname » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

qgin wrote: post #185

photochemsyn wrote: post #131

The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the service. Hopefully you won't be used in ridiculous debacles like the 2003 Iraq Invasion, based on lies about WMDs pushed by Washington (and see British role as well), but you'll have no say in the matter. The other thing to realize is that, at least in the USA, they…

https://news.gallup.com/poll/186527/americans-government-hea... > Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance…

TRICARE is great. The VA: not so much.

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

#209

Post by cmrdporcupine » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:24 PM UTC

If I knew my country's armed forces were 100% a domestic defense and emergency response force, I would absolutely have considered signing up when I was young. You learn good skills, and I see great value in some larger-than-self contribution to community there. My father is German and left Germany for good not long after doing his compulsory 1 year service. He hated it, and it was one of many factors that led to him emigrating. But one thing my aunts have told me is that before he joined he was a disorganized messy irresponsible person, and afterwards he was neat and structured. He is also an amazing marksman, which he learned there (before he left they were talking to him about advancing him through sniper training). He amazed my Canadian uncles when he went hunting with them.

But even here, in Canada, the armed forces gets involved in adventures abroad which I can would characterize as "dubiously thought through" at best ... but "blatantly imperialist" at worst. Being deployed to Afghanistan or some other adventure that I could not support would both enrage and depress me.

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

#210

Post by dogman144 » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 5:24 PM UTC

briffle wrote: post #191

ethbr0 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the son of a son of a father who wouldn't have gone to college without WWII-era tuition assistance, can confirm it changes entire family trajectories. My grandfather had the work ethic and intelligence in him, subsequently proven, but was born dirt poor with a snowball's chance in hell he could have afforded college without the GI Bill. The military is an option which largely accepts you if you say "Yes" and can p…

Same thing here. My grandfather was excited when his dad found some pallets 'that fell off the back of a truck' so they could have a floor for the tent they lived in outside Portland, and not see the rats. (funny when people in PDX complain about the homeless problem, my grandpa was in those cities in the 30's and 40s) GI bill put him into college, and set him up with an eductation that setup my mom and her 6 sibling…

I knew a Soldier with a 32 ACT (yes, I double checked as that's a great score) from East St Louis. Guidance counselors and everything else failed them, so they joined the mil.

How that kid (making an adult's decision by joining) wasn't scooped up by basically anyone other than their local recruiter blew my mind. If you spend some time around the military jobs that require smarts, these stories are very common. The non-high test score jobs tend to be staffed by very solid and smart people who just didn't have many other options at the time.

Soldiers from enlisted to General can and often are idiots and by glorifying them one risks the same risk as glorifying a professional athlete or any other symbol, but in aggregate the above story is common.