Joining the Army at 18

Joining the Army at 18

Against

November 7, 2011

I do not think that anyone, man or women, should be made to enlist in the army once they turn eighteen. Although joining the army can give you a very good and life long career; it can lead to troubles later in life. Making people join the army can make them think and feel that they have no choices when it comes to their own life. People should have the right as to what career path they want to go on. It should be no different from choosing who you decide to marry or what college you want to attend; it is the choice that you as an individual made. It should be the same with joining the military. If an individual wishes to serve their country by joining the armed forces, that is exactly what is should be, a personal choice. I personally think that the draft should be considered a form of slavery. There is no way around it. It forces a person to work for the state in involuntary service. It forces a person to fight, kill and possibly die in a war that they did not every believe in.

I think that it takes a certain type of person to be an active part of today's military. It takes years of dedications, sacrifice and courage. A person must think that all of these sacrifices are worth giving up a personal life. You are away from your family for long periods of time while in the army. It forces you to choose if you would rather live your life for the government or for a family unit. It is life changing for people who have not experienced the kind of discipline that the army teacher to people.

While in the army there is a chance of serious injury and being affected by that injury for the rest of your life and that injury will affect how you live your life. If enlisted during war time there is a high chance of death while deployed in the field.

I think that being only eighteen and being forced to join the army is wrong. At the young age of eighteen you are barely learning what life is all about. You are just learning what goals that you want to obtain, and what you want for yourself. You are barely considered an adult at the age of eighteen. By being forced to participate in something that you do not feel whole-heartedly about, could lead to making bad decisions that my harm you or others around you. I think that life is an adventure that you should have complete control over once you become an adult, but if someone forced to join the military that choice is on longer theirs. I think that being forced to join the armed forces is a violation of personal choice, and should not be enforced.

During the period between the Revolutionary War and the present, it was the Civil War that produced the most American fatalities, when Union statistics