Refusing Isn't Easy

"Bob" (real name kept secret by request because he's in the military) writes:

"Granted, it's a hard decision. But they could have refused to fight in W's illegal wars."
Ted,
That's easy for you to say. To a soldier, the wars were not illegal. He was ordered to go, and he went. It isn't his place to question. If he does, he will slow the mission down and could cause damage to the unit effectiveness. If he were to refuse, he would face some serious punishment. To straight out refuse a deployment would destroy not only his career, but his future civilian life as well. A dishonorable or bad conduct discharge can follow someone around like a felony.

Soldiers are not automatons. They are American citizens and, moreover, subject to U.S. military law, a law that requires soldiers to carefully consider the legality of every order before agreeing to carry it out. The wars are clearly undeclared and clearly illegal. It is true that one's military career would be trashed as the result of refusing. What does this say, one wonders, about our armed forces? After all, as demonstrated in "Hitler's Willing Executioners," even members of the Einsatzgruppen roving death squads in eastern Europe were given permission not to participate in raids and mass arrests of Jews and other enemies of the state. And, as the book's author showed, those who refused--and they were few--were never punished by so much as having been passed over for a promotion. If our system is worse than that, wow. And why would anyone want to remain part of it?

I can't speak for others, but a dishonorable discharge would in no way, shape, or form reduce the chances of my considering someone as a potential employee. I'm sure many other civilians feel the same way.

That is to not even mention the stupid amounts of bravado and misinformation that goes on. And this is in Military Intelligence, who is notorious for being lack. I can only imagine what it's like being in the real Army.
Some of the careerists really do care about the country and the Army. They will do whatever it takes to have a HOOAH military career, be it at expense of life, family, or idea's. It's a damn shame. Soldier's should not have to question their leaders. They should automatically assume that their fight is the good one. However, as can be seen in American history, that is rarely the case.
Which is the true shame.
I say this as a current active duty Soldier. I didn't join to do noble things, kill Iraqis, or preserve freedom. I did join for other reasons, and one of those are my family. It's easy to say I should have gotten a job, or went to college, but the fact is at my age I wasn't able to get a good job, and I couldn't afford college. Keep in mind that when you write things about soldiers in a negative light, the large majority of them could not afford lofty ideas. When I put on my uniform, I'm still a subversive asshole. But when I decide to keep my uniform on, I become someone who was willing to sacrifice a bit of his ideals for
opportunity, college, and his family.

I feel this pain. I remember being 18 years old, coming from a working poor family and growing up in a town with few and unattractive employment prospects, wondering whether I'd ever amount to anything professionally. Fortunately I was a good student and had gotten myself admitted to a good college--but that didn't even help. I majored in engineering, a field I was neither good at and didn't enjoy, and ended up expelled after three years. Not only was I unemployed, I was a college dropout with student loans up the ass.

I did consider a military career--twice. I applied to the US Naval Academy and took the US Army's aptitude test. Man, did the army love me! I take good test. They kept calling and calling and calling...but I didn't go even though they offered me everything from fast-track to officer to a sweet assignment anywhere I wanted. It was 1981, and while America was not at war and Ronald Reagan was not a batshit usurping fuckhead moron like that twat Bush, he was clearly a dangerous, mentally unstable and intellectually inferior leader. Many Americans worried that his posturing would get us into some stupid war. So, because of Reagan, I didn't enlist. Better to be homeless than kill people without cause.

Surely it's an easier decision now.