I have proudly served in the United States Marine Corps for the last seven years. I don't regret any of my time in the Corps, but I have decided to make this my last year. This was a very difficult decision for me to make. I'm writing this partly to help me get my own thoughts sorted out, and partly to help anyone out there who is considering enlisting or reenlisting.
I'll start by explaining why I joined in the first place.
I was a junior in high school when I made the decision to join the Corps. This was during 1997, a time when it seemed (to me at least) that the United States had no real enemies. The Cold War ended while I was a child, and we were confident in our might as the world's sole remaining superpower. And I wanted to get away from home. I love my family, but they are all much more religious than I am and I'm never fully comfortable around them.
I wanted to see the world and prove that I could make it on my own. I was very patriotic, and naive enough to have complete faith that the government of a great nation was equally great. I chose the Marine Corps because it appeared to be the most difficult branch of the service and I love challenges. I signed the dotted line in June of 1998.
I was stationed in Japan when the events of September 11, 2001, took place. Due to the time difference I was in bed when it happened. My roommate came in and woke me up to tell me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. At first I thought it was some kind of sick joke. Then I assumed that it must have been an accident. When the second plane hit and everyone in the barracks was called outside for an emergency briefing I knew we were under attack.
I had never really payed attention to politics, and I trusted the president because I had faith in his office and had never seen any reason not to trust him. When I was told that we had been attacked by a group supported by the government of Afghanistan, I didn't have any doubt that we were doing the right thing when we struck back. My first enlistment ended at about that time.
My reasons for reenlisting were a bit different from my reasons for enlisting in the first place. The country that had given me so much had been attacked and it needed me. I still had full faith in our president and never seriously considered not signing on for another three years.
Then we invaded Iraq.
I was shocked. Up until that point I had believed that everything the president had done and said was just posturing to make sure the inspections continued. Surely, I thought, the United States would only go to war if it was absolutely necessary. The only explanation I could think of was that he had some evidence that he couldn't share with the american people, knowledge of a threat terrible enough to justify the thousands of deaths an invasion would cause.
I was wrong. There were no weapons of mass destruction. The terrible dictator was a pitiful old man who we found hiding in a hole. I couldn't understand it. Any of it. So I started looking for answers. I discovered this site and other liberal sites, and I didn't want to believe what I was reading. But I did some research, and most of it checked out. The only explanation that makes any kind of sense is that our current administration is both evil and inept. So where does that leave me?
I love this country. I am willing to fight for it. I am willing to kill for it. But I can no longer trust that the people who give me orders have the best interests of the country at heart. I never want to be in a position where I have to choose between breaking my vow to obey the orders of the officers appointed over me and following an order that I know is immoral. I like to think that I would have the strength to do the right thing, but that's the sort of thing you can never know until you're in that position.
I'm still nervous about where I'm going to live and what I'm going to do after I get out, but I have a sense of peace now and I know I've made the right decision.