Eric Takabayashi <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
> > Really? Why do you feel sorry?
> 
> Because despite any claims of officials, people don't REALLY know the
> chance of going off to war or coming home dead. 

Well, then they're really stupid, sorry.

[reservists]
> I feel sorry for them.

I feel sorry for the reservists if they were drafted. If they enlisted
voluntarily in the Army, even if it was 20 years ago, then they asked
for it, no?
I don't know how it works in US, though. In Brazil, there's draft. So
I'm a reservist even though I've never worked for the Army.

> > Is it that the US Army doesn't have enough active soldiers?
> 
> That could be one reason. And according to their own surveys, a
> significant proportion in Iraq don't want to reenlist, and many want to
> go home, which will reduce numbers further.

Which is fine. 
 
[snip]
> > You mean, guys enter the US Army as soldiers and don't expect to go to
> > the front?!
> 
> Yes, despite the claims of any military officials. Believe it or not,
> many people who join the US military are not Rambos, but people who want
> jobs, training and opportunities.

I'm not saying they're all Rambos (although some apparently think they
are).
I don't claim they all enter the Army looking forward to go to war.
Only that they should be aware that the Army is ultimately about war,
that they _might_ go to war, kill people, suffer a lot and maybe get
killed. If you enlist, you're making a choice based on this. You can't
claim you just want a job, and you don't know or care for the
consequences. This is true of any Army. But in the case of US Army,
there's also the fact that chances of going to war are significant, as
opposed to (say) the Brazilian Army.
 
> "Expect to go the the front"? How often do wars occur? Always? Once
> during a period of a four year enlistment?
> 
> No, only about once a decade, or once in three decades.

Oh. Either you aren't up-to-date with the US foreign policy of the
past 50 years, or we mean different things when say "war".

Rafael Caetano