Conquer Club

How 21-year-old soldier Blake Ivey came to see war as "flat-out murder."
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/10392 ... ghanistan/

Hmm, that title doesn't seem catchy enough. What about:

"Soldier suddenly decides he's in the wrong line of work when asked to do his job"

"What? I thought this was money for nothing? - Says 21 year old grunt"

"Random 21 Year Old has personal opinion. Why should we care?"

"I'm at the bottom of the army's command chain. That makes my views relevant... right?"


I think all of those do the story justice while still packing reader-hooking punch. What do you reckon? Should we stop the presses?

Dancing Mustard wrote:Hmm, that title doesn't seem catchy enough. What about:

"Soldier suddenly decides he's in the wrong line of work when asked to do his job"

"What? I thought this was money for nothing? - Says 21 year old grunt"

"Random 21 Year Old has personal opinion. Why should we care?"

"I'm at the bottom of the army's command chain. That makes my views relevant... right?"


I think all of those do the story justice while still packing reader-hooking punch. What do you reckon? Should we stop the presses?

How about "Army recruites lower class kids because their minds are easier to control and they have no life options, one tries to break free"

Or is it too long?

Wait - he signed up as a US Army regular in 2005, 3 or 4 years after afghanistan was invaded, and then he refuses to go? Nuh-uh matey...

"Yet once Ivey was in the military, his feelings about war changed. He found it unsettling to chant "Blood, blood, blood makes the grass grow" in basic training, and he wrote a letter home to his mother describing his discomfort."

So he joins the army in wartime, then finds his feelings about war change? What the hell were they in the first place? Then he wrote to his mum because the shouty man made him say a bad word? Jesus, what did he think the army was??


PS war is bad

heavycola wrote:So he joins the army in wartime, then finds his feelings about war change? What the hell were they in the first place? Then he wrote to his mum because the shouty man made him say a bad word? Jesus, what did he think the army was??

I imagine he thought there were a lot more American flags waving and a lot less people dying.

Quite Frankly if a soldier doesn't want to fight then it is absurd of the military to try and force him, kick him out or let him leave the army.

heavycola wrote:what did he think the army was??

An obligation-free source of money apparently.

Sign up, get uniform, save up money, turn-tail and cry your bleeding heart out the moment you're told to go do the work you've been wasting tax-payers money training for.

I think not. Send him out as a minesweeper, post haste.


PS. I'm being facetious of course. If he's suddenly too scared to hold a gun and has decided that discretion is the better part of valour, then he can go to Afghanistan and earn his keep as a latrine-emptier or hole-digger instead. Problem solved.

comic boy wrote:Quite Frankly if a soldier doesn't want to fight then it is absurd of the military to try and force him, kick him out or let him leave the army.

Then make him pay back all the public money that he's wasted by recieving training for something that he knew he didn't want to do. After all, it's a job, not an adventure-holiday version of the dole.

Dancing Mustard wrote:hole-digger

Now that would look good on a resume.

Frigidus wrote:

Dancing Mustard wrote:hole-digger

Now that would look good on a resume.

See... everyone's a winner. The taxpayer gets the service they paid for, he gets to avoid the bullets, and his Resume gets a big fat shiny bonus point. Genius.

This reminds me of watching a news broadcast when I lived in San Diego. A bunch of marines from the local fort were heading out to Afghanistan and some of their relatives were up in arms about it. One soldier's wife was in front of the camera and was asked her opinion on the whole situation. Her words were as follows:

"This is not why he signed up to join the marines. He did not join the armed forces to go to war."

Why, exactly, does one join the armed forces then? I know the G.I. bill is a big draw, even though it's not what it should be, but I think you should at least have it in your mind that you may possibly go to war if you join the armed forces. Isn't that just common sense?

If the army allows for consciensious(howeber it's spelled) objectors to have a place, then why not just send him? If he doesn't want to fight then his fellow soldiers aren't going to want him there. Plus if he's only arifleman or driver, then it's not like he didn't get the same training as everyone else.

But the reality of it is what the heck was he thinking to begin with?

Dancing Mustard wrote:

comic boy wrote:Quite Frankly if a soldier doesn't want to fight then it is absurd of the military to try and force him, kick him out or let him leave the army.

Then make him pay back all the public money that he's wasted by recieving training for something that he knew he didn't want to do. After all, it's a job, not an adventure-holiday version of the dole.

Got no problem with that.

There are two good reasons why I never even considered the idea of joining the services.
First and foremost, I'm a coward, and don't much like the idea of risking being bombed or shot at. (Or bombing or shooting someone come to that).
Secondly, when you sign up you sign away any right you have to make your own decision. You may join because you're angry about 9/11, or feel that your country's armed presence is legitimate in arena x. Unfortunately, you do not retain the option to say, "I'm not going to dshoot any Irish people" or "I'll only fight muslims", or whatever. You agree that you will carry out whatever military action is deemed necessary by the government - and not just the government on the day you sign up, but whoever's in charge at any time before you leave the forces.

Becoming interested in Ghandi after joining the military, and claiming to be a conscientious objector while drawing an army wage, is like, well, um (pauses for thought) - like becoming concerned about your carbon footprint after you get on the plane, and pacing up and down for the entire flight saying "see? I'm a pedestrian!"

I can understand why thisw guy doesn't want to fight, but frankly its a bit late to decide that now.

Yeah, I'd say DM is right on the money here.

they should shoot the twat, stick it on tv and let the mtv generation understand it isn't a fucking game.

A quicker method to achieve that: stop using rock bands to promote the army.

Juan_Bottom wrote:

Dancing Mustard wrote:Hmm, that title doesn't seem catchy enough. What about:

"Soldier suddenly decides he's in the wrong line of work when asked to do his job"

"What? I thought this was money for nothing? - Says 21 year old grunt"

"Random 21 Year Old has personal opinion. Why should we care?"

"I'm at the bottom of the army's command chain. That makes my views relevant... right?"


I think all of those do the story justice while still packing reader-hooking punch. What do you reckon? Should we stop the presses?

How about "Army recruites lower class kids because their minds are easier to control and they have no life options, one tries to break free"

Or is it too long?

Word. The army recruits kids with the promise of an education, money, training and "peace-missions". Ofcourse the kid is a fucking idiot for joining up in the middle of a war, but the whole problem is that these kids have no idea what war actually is.