They don't mention the warfare - Army adverts come under attack

They don't mention the warfare - Army adverts come under attack

www.timesonline.co.uk

The Army is enticing young people to enlist with the aid of advertisements and leaflets that glamorise warfare and underplay the risks involved in a military career, it is claimed today.

The language in the recruiting literature and promotional DVD is so sanitised, a report says, that one brochure, Infantry Soldier, does not even mention the words “kill” or “risk”.

Killing is obscured, using euphemisms such as “decisive strikes”, and “surprise hits on enemy weak spots”.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The use of word play to dumb down a situation or to give it that "James Bond 007" appeal where all operations are undertaken without anyone else knowing, seems to give off an attitude that nobody will know you're around so you wont get hurt.

We can't slap our kids for discipline, and now it seems our kids are being told that they wont get killed or have to kill if they go to war.

The true horrors of war many can contest to. I don't think even the history books on WW1 or WW2 can really bring the horrors home.

Our molly coddled children being fed soft words with images of grandeur and bravado, then led off to the meat grinder like lambs to the slaughter.

Advertising war and the army to kids is nothing new though, what with toys like action man and the like, it just seems from this report that things are getting a little more subtle and a little more clever than before.

Brainwashing basically.

www.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

i can see where people would think this but cmon, lets give our kids just a LITTLE credit here....

i joined when i was 17 (delayed entry split op training) and I knew what it meant. i was in week 4 of bootcamp when iraq invaded kuwait. we all knew what it meant....we werent idiots. we didnt NEED it spelled out by the recruiters a la "oh you may have to kill people and you may die a horrible death or be grotesquely disfigured" and im not going to claim that i was any smarter than the kids joining the army today.

i may have gotten the shaft after 12 years but i still believe in the mission (though maybe not the way things are handled by this administration) so much that i didnt try to convince my gf at the time (wife now) to not join. it was the best way for her to start down her chosen career path and even now understands the risks involved.

thats just my opinion of course im just saying that maybe we give the kids a little TOO little credit in the matter.

Originally posted by Extralien

Our molly coddled children being fed soft words with images of grandeur and bravado, then led off to the meat grinder like lambs to the slaughter.

Cannon fodder is the correct term. Unfortunately it doesn't sell very well.

reply to post by Extralien


Though I do agree with you that our kids are coddled far too much these days, I do not agree that the Army is trying to hide the fact that people are going to be sent off to war. Even if they were though, we are at war so common sense would dictate that you may be sent off to fight. Burger King doesn't tell you that you'll be flippin' burgers if you work for them but take a guess what you'll be doing!

This is really nothing new, the armed forces have never stated the obvious in it's recruitment campaigns. I remember a popular parody from the 70's..

Join the Army
Travel the World
Meet Interesting People
And... Kill Them

What do you expect? You Brits have romanticized war for a thousand years. Over here people who join the Army know exactly what they're going to do: blow stuff up and kill people.

But you get your college paid for and are provided excellent career training for free.

Do people really have no capacity to connect the military with war?
C'mon. This is ridiculous and unnecessary. Anyone who signs up and is then later surprised to find themselves in harms way is either lying to get out or profit from a frivolous lawsuit or is so amazingly stupid they shouldn't be serving in the first place.

I gotta say,the ones I've seen are utter garbage.

Trying to insinuate you can get away with flicking a switch on and off to solve an onboard navy server. lol

they're obviously targetting under achievers at school who thing they can use the forces as a 'last resort' for a technical career...
Just overlooking the..

'getting shot at' bit.

look i amnot going to put anybody down for wanting to do service for the country. but yeah the advertizing for military doesn't bring home the truth
of it but then neither do the recruiters. i worked with this girl last year who was 30 years old she had a masters in chemistry but she was working along side of me in a factory she gor tired of not getting jobs she bidded on because of her gender so she went to see a recruiter about going into the navy as an officer they said no she could only go in as an enlisted so then she tried the army they told her same thing but they could garuntee her a job doing forensic chemistry and she wouldn't have to go to iraq or afganistan. she said ok sign me up . right after bootcamp they told her that her school was full and while she was waiting for it to have new classes they had another asignment for her guess where you guessed it iraq driving a truck. imagine going from a job making 15 dollars an hour to be a truck driver in iraq and you have a college education

reply to post by proteus33


Yeah that crap happens pretty often. They say one thing and you another. In there defense though the "fine print" contains clauses for all that stuff. Granted, nobody reads everything they sign but perhaps they should start.

Hell, if you want to sign up bring a lawyer in with you before you sign those papers. You'd bring a lawyer to close on a home loan wouldn't you? Why not when essentially signing a period of your life away?

reply to post by proteus33


I actually went to be a pilot in the R.A.F and was told I was too tall... 5.10"????

Yeh ..maybe for a fighter pilot leaving enough room for safe canopy clearance on ejection.. But I'm pretty sure all those big transporters have a little more room.

Guess what they recommended for me!!!
A blummin MP..

I told them I didn't even vote and to shove it..