"Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message

>> It is
> > obvious they know and everybody knows.
>
> It is not, and they do not.

It is obvious for Europeans that the army is an army and not an
administration like the ministery of education.

> You fail to realize that the US is different from this, and the military's
own
> findings prove it. Your first reaction is to dismiss the US soldiers as
> mentally retarded. How kind of you.

Wait a minute, I've never said anything about US soldiers in general. Most
of those I've met in really life were perfectly aware of their military
condition and what they had signed for.
Those that signed "without knowing"  and took seriously the crap
communication on the webpage you indicated are dumbies.
You say a survey showed they were very numerous in Irak....Dumbies or
hypocrites, you decide.
Ask Mike or Bryan or others if they didn't know the
conditions and would have said in a survey they didn't know they had a
chance to be sent away from their family and participate to a war.

> You and I were able to turn down offers of military service because we
>have
> better.

Not at all. I measure 1 m 58. The minimum is 1 m 60 for women. Suppose I
found the way to grow up of 2 cm, they wouldn't have let me pilote because I
wear contact lenses.

> Now see if you understand this: the US government and media are putting
quite a
> different face on US military actions, than what we are getting abroad.

That's not true. I have spent months in the US and didn't notice a real
difference with most other countries. We hear the same speeches of Bush
everywhere. The Americans have the same internet as you and me. They are
free to be "critical" about what their leaders and mass media say.

> there is even more which does not, according to people actually at the
> front, who are not appearing in the media,

That's not a scoop.

> > the veterans with the Gulf Syndrome,
> The US denies such a thing exists. Other doctors do not,

Precisely. And that "doubt" was widely discussed in the US media too, as
biased as they can be.

> We were wrong to help Kuwait when they couldn't help themselves? Why?

Because we failed to restablish a peaceful balance in the Gulf (that was the
goal of the intervention. Nobody cared about the asses of the Koweiti Ben
Ladens
as they could very well have help themselves). We caused more problems than
we solved in that area.
Other reasons too, but one is more than enough.

>I feel
> sorry for approximately half of Japanese who voted on Sunday.

I don't. They don't complain much about what their politicians do. They have
what they have chosen.

> > Just to think the generation that took the Vietnam war in their teeth
find it
> > normal that their children sign as military to pay for their studies !
>
> Why not, if that is what the US military is for some reason, willing to
offer.

You told me stories that would make stones cry about people "forced by life"
to join army to get a social security or pay their studies, and later
discovered the price was to go to war.
I don't buy it. All those people, or their parents, know US army does wars,
and sometimes horrible ones. They should have done something : saved more
for the kids' studies or ask  their country to spend more money on
education, health insurance, and less on military, etc. The French have
decided university education and healthcare were given to everybody without
having to go to war and that was financed by taxes and reduction of military
budget (as the army mostly hires people already educated). The American
think their  system is better ? You think it too ?. OK, if you accept the
consequences of your choice. Don't cry the "poor" people have to go to war.

> What disgusting recruitment methods? Joining the military for education,
> employment, and self improvement are perfectly acceptable.

You don't know what you want.

CC