Journalism / Your humanity needs you!

At the time of writing I am seventeen years of age. In four days I shall be eighteen. When I am eighteen I will be old enough to sign my life away to the British armed forces. I will be old enough to fight, kill and die for whatever flimsy moral my country has chosen to hang its hat from.
I won’t though. Instead, I shall take a career in literary fiction. Everything I write will be liberal rubbish. Every volume shall contain an argument against war, persecution, and the misinterpretation of religion. These things will continue regardless. All the flowery words in the world are rendered useless against bullets, bombs, and gunpowder.
After tonight I shall never wonder what the point is again. Fiction is no place to admit that you are fighting for a lost cause. That is not to say fiction should not be miserable. It should merely puppet a purpose to an audience.
So they can keep killing each other safe in the knowledge that someone cares.

However, tonight I am going to allow my mind to wander. I was informed earlier today that two of my friends have joined the army. I shall spare their names. The bullets will get everything else.
Fred I have known for roughly five years now. He is an extremely short person, besides which he is unremarkable. I have never seen any feats of endurance from Fred, in fact, I have floored him in a punch. He is of average intelligence.
As far as I know, Fred has always wanted to join the army. He was always a strong contender in the cadets and a strong believer that scientists will continue to make better ways of killing people. I agree with him on the second point.
Although I was never extremely close to Fred I always secretly hoped that he would be refused entrance to the army due to his height. It would crush him, but it would have saved his life. Fred is currently in training. I have seen photos of him holding a gun and smiling.
Terry is a supporter of the British Nationalist Party. He hates all foreigners and once expressed an urge to kill a Jewish friend of mine. He was in a romantic relationship with her at the time. Despite his racist qualities, Terry was alright. He was introduced to drugs from a young age. That fucks up anyone.
He joined the army recently. His ex-girlfriend (my Jewish friend) informed me earlier today. I have no idea how far into the meat-grinder he is, or why he chose to pursue a career in killing. He lives at the end of my street.
I doubt I shall hear anything from either of them ever again.

All reasons for joining the army all summed up in the following statement. To join the army you must want to kill people, or die trying.

I knew both of these people. I cannot fathom why they want to harm another being. It pains me to think that they might die. Fred never realised that the enemy would shoot back at him. I have a suspicion that Terry might want to die.
As much as it pains me to think of these people dying, it pains me more to think of them killing. Soldiers killing soldiers is nothing new. There is no tragedy in it. There is tragedy in soldiers killing the innocent.
Most war is made on the innocent.

I am not here to procrastinate over war, or what drives people to war. There is a certain possibility that I shall be thrown into war should the big bombs start to fly. World wars give guns to the innocent. If you give a panda a rifle, he is still a panda.
Until the next world war the killing engine relies on vile people to do vile deeds. This essay has been written to tell you that there is no point in fighting against war. There will always be vile deeds to do and vile people to do them. Every word you write will be ignored. I am going to try anyway.
My words are just as useless as yours.

I’ll leave you with a thought. I can’t do much more than that. When the big bombs do start to fly and a world war is declared, where do you stand? Will you fire your gun to defend yourself, or run until there is nowhere to hide?
I am going to run.

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Reviews

August 09, 2009

brainfreeze

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
30	85.7% (14 votes)	100.0%

personal info reviewer stats

Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
33	F	Oklahoma City, OK	October 14

brainfreeze reviewed Version 1 - Read 100% of the Item

I don’t believe that most people join the Armed Forces for the specific purpose of killing innocent people. I believe that they join because they feel that they are serving and protecting their country—even though the biggest threat to the U. S. will come from within, in my opinion.

You spoke of your friend Fred as though he is already dead when you said that he never realized that the enemy shoots back. You should re-word this sentence to “I don’t think that Fred realizes that the enemy will shoot back at him”. Also, when you said that you’re not here to “procrastinate” over war, I think that you mean “protest”. Procrastinate means to put something off—I don’t think this is the correct context for that word.

I think this is a very thought-provoking piece. You should see the commercials that they play here in America—the ones where the teens are talking to their parents about joining the Army. I think it’s pretty pathetic that these commercials use the baiting worm of money for education to lure these kids into possibly going to war.