About the army

Two days ago, an army recruiter asked me if i ever considered joining the US army. I answered a simple "no." She seemed taken aback. She asked me if I had any reasons why. Boy oh freaking boy! Of course I have reasons why. Not one reason, mind you, but several reasons. I did not want to list all becasue I was at work and it was a little busy (i was working the evening shift) so i told her that joining was against my principles. Then she asked if I was religious. I replied "yes." Then she started to tell me her beliefs. Did i ask to hear? Nope. but that didnt stop her. She told me that she believed that everyone had a purpose in life and joining was just part of God's plan. I told her, "well i don't think it's my purpose in life." Really, I did not want to say, "have you taken a look at our Commander in Chief lately?" this guy will get all of us killed! No, and a war never solved any problem. Wars create more wars and the cycle goes on and the karmic burden is left for the earth to bear. I would rather not be known for killing in the name of "protection." I would rather be trained to save lives rather than trained to take lives. No one wins in war.
Today, my customer was talking about the glories of being a soldier. He said that Cindy Sheehan was a moron for staging protests against the war. I told him if I ever had a son, and he was killed in a place where we really did not need to be, I would protest as well. Afghanistan, i understand, not Iraq. That is as senseless as senseless gets. If anyone is sacrificed for greed it is wrong. Maybe we need to develop more energy efficient methods and depend less on oil from the mid east. how's about that?
Back to my army discussion. there was a poem written by a "trench" poet during WWI. Wilfred Owen i think, "dulce et decorem est." Beautiful poem about the "glories" of dying in a war. Owen died a week before the war was over and his poems were found and published. That is tragic. Not all the soldiers who fight think it is glorious. Some of them question whether it is really right. Maybe it's just me. I cannot take nor follow orders that are barked out to me. When that happens, we become like animals.
Or maybe, we can just join the Trinidad army. Goodness knows, it's one of the safest armies in the world. A soldier in the Trinidad army is pretty protected. The nation was under seige in 1990 and no one in the army could be found! Maybe as a trinbagonian, i do not feel threatened enough to fight. Maybe.