*** Official Putin Started Shootin' Thread ***

[MadMojoMonkey]

AFAIK, you enter the US military as either an officer or an enlisted soldier.

No enlisted soldier "becomes" an officer. Not as a promotion, at least.

You have to go to school to be an officer. Most officers enter the military as an officer.
There are paths to become an officer if you are an enlisted soldier, but they're arguably harder than an 18-yo joining ROTC (Reserved Officer Training Corps - a college/military hybrid program which upon completing college, you enter the military as an officer.)

Joining ROTC isn't really that hard to do, but moving up from enlisted to officer requires you to be considered exceptional at your job by your commanding officers, and to be recommended for officer school, then to actually go to what amounts to college to become an officer.

It's do-able, but it's not the common path.

[Jack Sawyer]

A few thoughts ...

1) Is nationalism all that bad? If you are going to simp for a country, why not simp for your own? The trick is making sure your country stays within checks and balances, and recognizing and getting rid of corrupt government. I think the trick is that if you are forced into love of country, China-style, then you know something is very wrong and you have to get the fuck out of Dodge.

2) Which percentage of 18 year olds know exactly, without any shadow of a doubt, what they want to do with their lives? How many of these will take the polar opposite path when they are 25, 32, even 40, with a mountain of accumulated debt, a few kids on the side, and a carful of books they will never even read?