Well a pacificist friend of mine just emailed me an article about how a kid died from Marine Boot Camp because he had drowned during a pool exercise . Well... he's always desuaded me from joining the Corps, saying you're just there to be trained as a "mindless killing machine."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/fe...mari-f25.shtml.
My apologies if this topic is overtalked or rather "beating the dead horse" once more, but I couldn't find any thread talking about this so-- alright, getting to my point here...
Is Marine Boot Camp and serving overseas really the personality-obliterating, backbreaking, PTSD-reckoning experience that countless conservative articles preach about like the one I just posted?
Or [most likely] could they be wrong/biased in many ways considering the author of the article Claire Hurley a.k.a. sit-at-home-all-day-Soccer-Mama bashes on the U.S. military [or Marine Corps. in general] for being 'deceitful,' immoral, and doing whatever means to turn supposedly innocent 18-year old kiddos into some psyched out killer like 'Gomer Pyle' from
Full Metal Jacket, even though that person has never served in any military branch.
Personally, I don't believe the article fervently, I think personality can be retained even through tramautic experiences, most of the former/active duty Marines I know are self-composed, level-headed, funny at many times -- everything opposite of what the article describes.
Anyways, just wondering what your 2 cents are on the whole bloody topic.. especially for any former or currently serving Marines in this forum.