Michael Moore:

I support peace, and I beg any young person reading this who's thinking of joining the armed forces to please reconsider. Our war department has done little to show you they won't recklessly put your young life in harm's way for a cause that has nothing to do with what you signed up for. They will not help you once they've used you and spit you back into society. If you're a woman, they will not protect you from rapists in their ranks. And because you have a conscience and you know right from wrong, you do not want yourself being used to kill civilians in other countries who never did anything to hurt us. We are currently involved in at least a half-dozen military actions around the world. Don't become the next statistic so that General Electric can post another record profit -- while paying no taxes -- taxes that otherwise would be paying for the artificial leg that they've kept you waiting for months to receive.

(As found on wmtc.)

I was going to leave it at that, but I have to mention my old Ridgefield pal Nate, the first Coast Guardsman killed in action since the Vietnam War. I lost touch with him when he moved away, and years later, I found out he got killed. I didn't even know he'd joined the Coast Guard.

The more I read about the guy's post-Ridgefield days, the more I learn about why he was even in the Gulf at all. He was a volunteer fireman when I knew him, and apparently he wanted to pursue that, or become a cop, and Sky knows we need more good cops. But the reason he joined the Coast Guard is that he was running out of money and options in life. This was before 9-11. So once all the shit started to go down, there were the military fatcats in their offices, sending out my friend to Iraq, not once, but twice. Quotes from his sister (who was present the night we all went to Nate's house to scratch off hundreds of lottery tickets looking for a major score that never came) say Nate was not happy over in the Gulf, and just wanted to come home. This was a guy who just wanted to serve his fellow human. And to do that he went through the military, who promised him a better life but promptly used him as a human shield.

So, basically, what Michael Moore said. If you're thinking about joining the military because you feel you have no other option, and you happen to have hit the wrong keys and ended up on some random Red Sox blog when you're supposed to be poring over your idiotic friends' pictures of their breakfasts for five hours, please, please, please, think some more about it, and do anything else. Thanks.