In an honest attempt to answer the original question...
It depends on the reason for asking and what "should" means. Does it mean "is it our duty to serve", or does it mean "should I refrain because of religious reasons". I don't know exactly because it's kind of vague.
If you're asking if it's our duty... it depends. Yes, if you are able to, and you know that your family and fellow countrymen would benefit from your service and others like you, sure, I believe it's our duty. Who else is going to fight? The problem is that most people nowadays don't believe that there has been a situation that is worthy of this definition since WWII. Nobody believes that going to Iraq for 6 months will directly benefit their family and home. Therefore there is a dwindling sense of duty. Whether or not you believe this is up to you, but it's a big question, because if you sign up, it's almost guaranteed that you're going to the big show over in Iraq for at least 6 months.
Now, if it's "should I refrain because of religious reasons"... normally I would say this wouldn't matter, so no. There have always been soldiers, always will be. Many of those soldiers are good Christians and fighting for a good cause. All throughout history there have been Christian soldiers, yet this has never been questioned until very recently. Why? Mainly because of Vietnam and Iraq. Our government tries to do a little too good, so they invade a country and try to fight the individual terrorists within that country and not the entire country itself, not the official army commanded by the official government in official uniforms. So what happens is that you cannot win a war like this. This happened in Vietnam and history is repeating itself right now. What starts out as a noble cause ends up as a sloppy mess because this situation is unfixable. In the meantime, lots of people, mostly bleeding heart liberals, take what they see and twist it around and make it seem as if the American soldier is bad, making our potential bright young men to question whether they should enlist even though they normally would.
So basically, I guess my answer, at least in my opinion, is that normally, our country fights good fights, does good deeds, helps good people abroad, and protects our good people at home, so you should be unapologetic and never feel even slightly ashamed that you could call yourself both a Christian soldier and an American soldier.
However, given the current situation, which is just a small blip in history, it would be perfectly understandable if you chose not to enlist due to recognizing that we are in the middle of an absolute unwinnable mess that includes questionable morality and not wanting to voluntarily be a part of it, which you are almost guaranteed to be if you enlist right now. BUT, this does NOT mean that I think that anyone should look down on the American soldiers themselves.
Basically I feel that if anybody is going to question or judge anybody given the current situation, you should direct your anger towards our intelligence agencies. They are the #1 reason we are over there. Why do the protesters single out the soldiers and not these agencies? It's not the soldier's fault, it's the intelligence. All the president can do is rely on the information that our agencies give him. If our agencies tell him there are stockpiles of WMD's and they're doing everything possible to plan a use for them and claim they have hard evidence proving such a thing, then how can anybody judge the president for making a decision based on that information that he has been given? Furthermore, how can anybody judge an American soldier who is also Christian for being a part of this? They were told it was a good and necessary action, just like the president was told.
But yeah, my biggest problem is that back in WWII you wouldn't have these slanderous anti-military comments directed towards our soldiers.
It depends on the reason for asking and what "should" means. Does it mean "is it our duty to serve", or does it mean "should I refrain because of religious reasons". I don't know exactly because it's kind of vague.
If you're asking if it's our duty... it depends. Yes, if you are able to, and you know that your family and fellow countrymen would benefit from your service and others like you, sure, I believe it's our duty. Who else is going to fight? The problem is that most people nowadays don't believe that there has been a situation that is worthy of this definition since WWII. Nobody believes that going to Iraq for 6 months will directly benefit their family and home. Therefore there is a dwindling sense of duty. Whether or not you believe this is up to you, but it's a big question, because if you sign up, it's almost guaranteed that you're going to the big show over in Iraq for at least 6 months.
Now, if it's "should I refrain because of religious reasons"... normally I would say this wouldn't matter, so no. There have always been soldiers, always will be. Many of those soldiers are good Christians and fighting for a good cause. All throughout history there have been Christian soldiers, yet this has never been questioned until very recently. Why? Mainly because of Vietnam and Iraq. Our government tries to do a little too good, so they invade a country and try to fight the individual terrorists within that country and not the entire country itself, not the official army commanded by the official government in official uniforms. So what happens is that you cannot win a war like this. This happened in Vietnam and history is repeating itself right now. What starts out as a noble cause ends up as a sloppy mess because this situation is unfixable. In the meantime, lots of people, mostly bleeding heart liberals, take what they see and twist it around and make it seem as if the American soldier is bad, making our potential bright young men to question whether they should enlist even though they normally would.
So basically, I guess my answer, at least in my opinion, is that normally, our country fights good fights, does good deeds, helps good people abroad, and protects our good people at home, so you should be unapologetic and never feel even slightly ashamed that you could call yourself both a Christian soldier and an American soldier.
However, given the current situation, which is just a small blip in history, it would be perfectly understandable if you chose not to enlist due to recognizing that we are in the middle of an absolute unwinnable mess that includes questionable morality and not wanting to voluntarily be a part of it, which you are almost guaranteed to be if you enlist right now. BUT, this does NOT mean that I think that anyone should look down on the American soldiers themselves.
Basically I feel that if anybody is going to question or judge anybody given the current situation, you should direct your anger towards our intelligence agencies. They are the #1 reason we are over there. Why do the protesters single out the soldiers and not these agencies? It's not the soldier's fault, it's the intelligence. All the president can do is rely on the information that our agencies give him. If our agencies tell him there are stockpiles of WMD's and they're doing everything possible to plan a use for them and claim they have hard evidence proving such a thing, then how can anybody judge the president for making a decision based on that information that he has been given? Furthermore, how can anybody judge an American soldier who is also Christian for being a part of this? They were told it was a good and necessary action, just like the president was told.
But yeah, my biggest problem is that back in WWII you wouldn't have these slanderous anti-military comments directed towards our soldiers.
