this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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Not true for the USN. They hand you a contract that you sign. You only have to do what is contained in that contract. To change your job they have to get you to sign a new contract. I was never close to combat, and neither would any other Navy Nuke, though they actually left the school for the fleet. I skipped that step. There are tons of non-combat jobs in the US military that will never be anywhere close to combat. Logistics is why our military works.
That being said, it's worse than you are making it out to be. A lot of the people who signed up for combat roles were looking to kill people before they ever signed the contract.
You join the USN, you help with the logistics, someone you've helped in some way or another presses a button somewhere, a cruise missile is fired, obliterates a target and a few bad guys, some civilians die as collateral damage - to me, you've helped kill these civilians even though, admittedly, you've only played a very minor role. I very much doubt there are any contracts at the USN that 100% exclude that possibility and I'm not giving anyone a benefit of the doubt.
I have a good friend that is a cardiologist in the air force. Joined the military when he got into med school to cover his tuition and the get guaranteed residency. He's never been deployed over seas, never been in a war area, and never designed a process or item that has led to an indirect killing. An exception could be if he saved someone that went back to kill someone, but that would be true for all doctors military or not, so that's not a valid comparison.
There are many military jobs that are simple office jobs like accounting. Not everyone of them is linked to battle.
If you think these more mundane jobs indirectly lead to military related casualties, you better start hating on your local grocery store, because odds are they have given supplies to a soldier that eventually indirectly killed someone. Or probably any public service a soldier could use, because indirectly, that may help the soldier kill someone.
Holy reaching Batman. That's quite a reach from serving in the military doesn't ackchually serve the military in some cases to your grocery is probably serving the military.
No wonder yankistanis like getting dominated by your government. Keep kissing that boot though and wondering why the government turned fascist, it's probably the local groceries fault.
Working for the military makes you a war enabler. Best case. You help making it possible for some government asshole to wage war. Worst case, you become a murderer.
So whether you're in battle or not only decides if you're a murderer or helping murderers.
None of these possibilities are acceptable. Period.
Paying your taxes makes you a much bigger war enabler than the non combat military. And with taxes, you not only enable your country to go to war. You enable other countries to do so too, as your gov pays for weapons to give them. The fact is, noone is innocent. And the people truely causing the wars for thier own interest just want us to blame each other instead of them. Clearly, you are giving them what they want.
This guy, apparently
If you read my first comment, I explicitly said "of their own free will". I do not pay taxes out of my own free will, so your comparison is invalid.
Um... If they really had a choice, the vast majority would not join the military. There are exceptions of course. But most feel they have no other options. Just like technically you don't have to pay your taxes (you can file a form to have nothing withheld from your paycheck). But it is the best choice if you want to make a living. So still, very much valid.
Feeling you have no other option (despite a lot of other jobs being on offer) and totally not having any other option (because they'll put you in jail for not paying taxes) are two completely different things.
With all due respect, but there is no reason to join the army unless they force you to. Even when Germany still had mandatory military service and they wanted to draft me in 1997, I opted to wipe old peoples' butts in an old people's home instead because that was the only way out. Don't you dare tell me there is no other option.
I'm sorry you were forced into that, but I have mad respect for you helping the elderly instead of joining the military.
Thank you very much for saying that, but in hindsight it was actually a great life experience. I met a man who was 103 at the time, in 1997. So he was 21 years old when WWI broke out. He later joined the German socialist party SPD, he resisted the Nazis and was forced to emigrate, he had such amazing stories to tell.
I think he played a big part in why I became interested in politics, German history and also why I became an antifascist and anti-militarist. Him and the fact that the Nazis executed one of my two grandfathers for "defaitism".
That's amazing, thank you for sharing that
The grocery’s job doesn’t rely upon the imperial pillaging of other places to make economic sense. “Non combat roles” in the military do. The military doctor’s job is to get the boys back out doing more slaughter. That’s the point. If they didn’t do that they wouldn’t be doing their job. Other doctors, that’s not the point…it could be some distant effect, sure, but for a military doctor it’s direct. Other doctors see patients who are not involved in imperialist slaughter of innocents. Military doctors do not.
This is like Von Braun saying “I was only an SS officer developing military weapons for the science! I wasn’t like…info it, you know, you can’t hold it against me.” Accountants for the Nazis should have quit, and it’s okay to say they’re awful people and complicit in the holocost. Anyone who works for the US military is complicit in the imperialist crimes of that organization. I’m sorry if that’s you or people you love. If it is, you should do something about it.
Absolutely agree.
I happen to be German, by the way. My grandfather was forced into the Wehrmacht, he tried fleeing the battlefield, he got executed.
Anyone who works for the military enables politicians to wage war. And no soldier will ever be able to 100% prove their actions never led to anyone getting hurt.
Soldiers know and accept that and that's why I despise them.
Your grandfather was very brave ❤️ It’s sad that ordinary people are sometimes forced to choose between bravery and monstrosity. But there it is.
And frankly, us military members are not forced. They can just…have a normal life instead.
Yeah. Why not just lead a normal life.
I wish society would frown upon people choosing to become soldiers like they do upon prostitutes. But instead, all this glorification and militarism makes them think being a soldier is a commendable thing.
In my view, prostitutes should get the medals. They literally make love, not war.
Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown.
"Ha, Nazi Schmazi," says Wernher von Braun.
Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.
There are tons of contracts in the USN that absolutely guarantee that you will never see anywhere close to combat. All Nukes only serve on Carriers and Subs. Corpsmen (Navy Doctors and nurses) tend the wounded. You KNOW what you are signing up to do before they ever even send you to MEPS for medical testing. The only people that might not have specifically signed up for firing a weapon is whoever launches the missiles that we shoot from our frigates. I don't know if "Gunner" is still a job, but I would assume it is since the Navy has all the big guns.
I can't speak to what happens in the fleet. I went to Navy Nuke school, learned to operate power plants, and they gave me a new extremely lucrative contract to stay there and teach other people to operate power plants.
I also cannot speak for The Army, Air Force, or Marines. Though with the first and third, it's hard to imagine that one wouldn't know that they are signing up to potentially kill people.