Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

chrisseaton.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 608 posts

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

#261

Post by chaostheory »

oaxacaoaxaca wrote: post #83
sputknick wrote: post #8

I spent five years in the Air Force. Posts like this are really helpful, a lot of Americans are disconnected from members of the military, especially in the upper classes where people do not need to serve, or in fields (like tech) where people can often find less intrusive ways to pay for college. My favorite part of the article is dispelling the myth that in the military senior people bark orders, and don't ask for…

>None of that is true. All of that is true about my Army experience lol. If I could go back and do it again, I'd definitely choose Air Force. I agree that the military can be a positive experience and it's a good idea for some people, but the caveat with my endorsement is that you gotta carefully choose the branch and the job. I almost chose linguistics, but for some silly reason chose mechanic and paratrooper, and w…

Everyone wants to get into the Air Force, so if you are applying to say subsidize your medical education, you’ll find that there aren’t many openings; so most people tend to opt for the Navy. The Army is the last choice for most people.

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

#263

Post by watwut »

ethbr0 wrote: post #232
8note wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> 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. What happens when roads are destroyed or barricaded for tolls, taxes aren't paid, or healthcare and education are withheld from anyone who isn't a white man? (to offer a few hypotheticals)

I am more ok with destroyed roads then with expansive war or atrocities and so on. Those cause way more harm. I not ok with racist education. By I am even more not ok with army being used for racist project - and that one causes more harm.

Also, by current legal standards, soldiers are supposed to refuse orders if those lead to genocide and such. It is so after Nuremberg after WWII.

I am very fine with the rare Russian soldier refusing to fight Ukraine. The one following orders when "filtering" or killing civilians should be prosecuted.

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

#264

Post by simonh »

mardifoufs wrote: post #239
simonh wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 2003 invasion is obviously contentious. I’d argue we should have done it the first time, but that’s moot.

It's as contentious as the russian invasion of ukraine is. Meaning, not at all unless you fall for the obvious war justifying rhetoric. I dont know why but it seems like there's been such a weird push for rehabilitating what the US and it's allies did to the middle east since the start of the russian war of aggression against ukraine.

The situation in Iraq is tough but no, I don’t think it’s obvious to me it would be better off still under Saddam Hussein, or maybe by now one of his sons. If you wonder what a dynastic succession like that can look like, check out Syria, and the young Assad is a pusseycat compared to Uday or Qusay.

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

#265

Post by watwut »

ethbr0 wrote: post #80
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being subordinate didn't work for the Nuremberg "I was following orders" crowd, which makes me doubt your assertion. > if you don't trust your government to deploy military power, what do you trust them for? Do you have to trust them for anything? It's not like it's a viable option to decide that you don't want to designate any government as "yours". Good luck surviving in no man's land if you do. What makes governme…

> Being subordinate didn't work for the Nuremberg It didn't work for those convicted in the Nuremberg trials because the Nazis lost . Had the Third Reich persisted with a truce, do you really think they would have been charged, convicted, and sentenced? Legal liability gets pretty hazy when applying it in a non-sovereign arenas (i.e. international matters). Yes, there are treaties [0], but what are treaties without e…

> Had the Third Reich persisted with a truce, do you really think they would have been charged, convicted, and sentenced?

Pre Nuremberg expectations on soldiers were blind obedience nazi or not. Nuremberg set the expectation on soldiers from then on. WWII changed that.

It could not happen due to their own ideology. It did not allowed for lasting compromise which everyone else knew. Third Reich would not prosecuted those people, because by their ethical standards they were doing right thing.

Then again, Pablo Escobar believed he is cool guy by own standards too.

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

#266

Post by daedalus_f »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #179
daedalus_f wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Modern economic powers like the UK do not use their militaries for self-defense. Modern economic powers have militaries and alliances that make attacking them unattractive. They have sufficient teeth to dissuade conflict. If you are fortunate enough to live in a Western democracy your safety and security is preserved by the actions of those who you call morally compromised.

Doesn't really matter for this purpose, I'm not arguing that the military is inherently wrong, or that military service is. I'm asserting that by far the most likely use of a wealthy nation's military is going to be a bad one . Encouraging people to join the military in that context is bad. People have an incredibly wide range of reasons for joining or supporting militaries, and I would absolutely not universally con…

> I'm not arguing that the military is inherently wrong, or that military service is.

Just that everyone who signs up for the military of a developed nation is morally compromised at the extreme very best. Can you square that statement with believing in the moral existence of a military for a developed nation?

> By far the most likely use of a wealthy nation's military is going to be a bad one

And yet, as I said, developed nations require a military for defence. The world is not a nice place, as Russia is current proving, and modern conflicts cannot be fought successfully with poor quality untrained troops recruited on the fly for a particular conflict, where those signing up know what they are going to be doing in advance. Developed nations therefore need a well trained standing army. In signing up for this army, people put their lives on the line, and in doing so protect you, me and others from harm. I do not consider doing this for that ideal morally compromised.

You are right that nations have engaged in wars of aggression that should not have been fought. Living in such a nation I bear some of the responsibility for those wars, as do the soldiers who fought in those wars, but much less than the politicians and dictators who declared them for their own or their nations strategic gain in the first place.

Unfortunately nice binary moral choices are few and far between.

> That aside, just because I benefit from something doesn't make it ok. What kind of first grader ethics is that?

My point was not to suggest that because you benefit from something that makes it ok, as you well know.

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

#267

Post by marssaxman »

I am struck by the author's expansive comfort in the use of "we" to describe their military organization, even in the context of historical events. I have never felt such a strong identification with any organization I was actively participating in, much less with its existence before my involvement. I wonder what accounts for this.

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

#268

Post by notch656a »

throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #250
notch656a wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

sure, and if you go back in time far enough, you can say that generals get killed in combat too how many logistics and support personnel casualties did the US have in any war during this century?

Not sure if this is sarcasm, but quite a few on here from 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'

https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/oifnames-of-fa...

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

#269

Post by jpgvm »

qiskit wrote: post #242
jpgvm wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not meant literally. Even in Australia our armed forces are still "Royal" but this is just a vestige of the past. i.e our ships are designated Her Majesty's Australian Ship (HMAS). What is means in practice is they fight for their country and its allies, just like any other military. While technically the Queen's representative in Australia (the Governor-General) is the chief of Australias armed forces (as defin…

Then don't say it period. Also, isn't the british queen still the head of state of australia? Every time I bring this up, it's always australians, canadians, british, etc making excuses.

What do you mean excuses? It's just history. It's said for the same reason, because history.

I'm sorry it offends you but nobody in Australia is overly motivated to change something that has no practical impact and given you don't seem to be from a Commonwealth country I don't think you are entitled to complain about it either.

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

#270

Post by letitbeirie »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25
jmyeet wrote: post #14

So one of the things I like about Tiktok is you get exposed to something you normally wouldn't and it can be fascinating. One example of this I had an Air Force recruiter pop up on my fyp. This is obviously US-centric (as opposed to the article, which is the UK) but here are some things I've learned: 1. The difference between Reserve and Guard? Reserve is Federal, Guard is State (this was news to me); 2. Signing up f…

This isn't a positive. It is a tragedy that these services (education, healthcare) are difficult to obtain without military service in a supposedly developed country.

> This isn't a positive

It's a silver lining. It's shameful that the need exists at all, but it's definitely a positive for the people who are getting mostly screwed by the status quo but would otherwise be getting completely screwed.

Post reply on HN