Military hopefuls called anti-social (Canadian army internal study)

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1110409815054&call_pageid=970599119419

OTTAWA—Young Canadians interested in joining the military tend to lack life goals, feel alienated and accept violence to achieve ends, says an internal army study obtained by The Canadian Press.

Some findings in the 80-page report suggest army recruiters should carefully screen the 5,000 additional soldiers they plan to hire in the next five years.

People interested in a career with the Canadian Forces tend to be "lacking in life goals and feel alienated from society and its values," says the document, co-authored by three senior officers.

"They are attracted to violence more than the average member of Canadian society and accept violence as a legitimate means of getting what they want."

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[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Sounds like our standard marine.

[Tempest]

2. No lie

I worked in an office with two former Marines and it was always "kill him" and "kill her" and "blow them all to hell".


I thought seriously about getting a restraining order against them after they got abusive at times because of my politics.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Ex-marines I've known are definitely not the most stable kind of guys.

And they're raising another generation of race-haters. What the hell is the military thinking legitimizing these people's prejudices?

[DELUSIONAL]

17. This will piss off Marines when they read this

but as a general rule I agree with your assessment.

Then there are the ex-Marines who become cops -- many of these guys are darn right dangerous. Could be why tasers are being used indiscriminately on children and old people.

There must be something universal about the type of people who join the military -- so many bullets are being used in Iraq that the US War department has had to order more from outside the US. Seems like the Marine's response is shoot first -- ask questions later.

[Columbia]

3. More like the average teenager

Nice smear though. :eyes:

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. The military has to do a better job of weeding out racists. Sorry,

but there's a problem there. And when they get reintroduced into the population, they spread their prejudices to the kids. Rah, rah patriots who think that whites are losing out to minorities. I had one brainwash a beautiful young child I know. She adores him and where she went from being an innocent, she now loves NASCAR because there are no black people and believes that blacks get free rides even in professional football. "If there is a black and a white football player considered for a position, they always pick the black guy even if he isn't as good."

[Columbia]

6. Yes one anecdotal story

And the entire military is racist. Gotta love the broad strokes.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Well, admittedly, I live in a predominately Republican community

so I would be saturated with right-leaning marines.

[Columbia]

10. Then your problem is probably more due to the GOP

Than the USMC.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. These attitudes are not hard to identify through an interview.

Racists should never be given weapons training. Not in the present atmosphere we live in. Twenty years ago it may have been a different story, but the tension is rising.

[Columbia]

13. Everyone is racist to one degree or another

The military actually gives people a chance to work with individuals they may never normally interact with. This fosters cooperation, tolerance, and common ground compassion rather than racism.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Lol! That's what the military may have been at one time,

but the cry that the military is Republican has been echoed enough times that conservative opinions flow freely, while liberals ones are silenced. Much like Boomer's office.

[Columbia]

23. Not true

As an enlisted Marine, I've argued with a Marine Captain about how Bush was an imbecile and I was never silenced.

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. Hmmm....I'm listening.

[mutus_frutex]

18. No, you are wrong.

People are naturally xenophobic (which is a characteristic evolved for protection). Racism is quite different and it entails a very different set of values. In some cases xenophobia can be confused with racism, maybe that is what you refer to.

[mutus_frutex]

19. You have to agree that

to be in the military you have to be at least a bit whacked. Otherwise how can you accept the fact that you might have to kill people without really knowing why and because somebody tells you to?

[Boomer]

8. Another anedoctal story

My cubicle mate at work is an ex-Marine, devout Christian and expert computer geek to boot.

He's also one of the few people in my office to put a Kerry For President sticker on his car and to voice -- loudly -- his contempt for George Bush as an incompetent bully and his view of the Iraq war as an incredible human rights abuse.

So there.

[Columbia]

9. Thank you, Boomer

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Well tell him to move into my neighborhood, dammit!

[Boomer]

14. No way!

He's one of the few Dems in my office, where even the gay employees are Republicans. I can't tell you what a relief it was to discover I could mutter anti-Bush curses under my breath without risking a major office flame war. If anything, I'm now the one who is stunned as he deliberately raises his voice while describing the perfidies of the Bush Administration.

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. You're downright selfish, is what you are.

:-)

[katty]

20. No surprise - the Military does not attract 'negotiators'

it's amazing that a 'study' is the only way that this assessment can be justified.

[Big_Mike]

21. I agree with the general thrust of the article

but keep in mind this survey was done with the CANADIAN Army. There are a great many differences between the States and Canada. I worked for a company whose main offices were in Toronto. Their attitudes are greatly different from those of US citizens. In Canada, many will engage in a drive by shouting, but never a drive by shooting.

While I beleive many of the teenager attitudes are likely much the same, the metric against which teens are measured would differ greatly, IHMO.

[mainer]

22. So the best soldiers are the ones who don't really want to serve?

It's kind of an argument for the draft, since people who volunteer for military service are anti-social!

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. the proverbial Catch 22, eh?

[Zerex71]

24. It's no different here.