Books :: Paul Rockwell on 10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military

One Reason Not to Join The Military. You may be ordered to kill civilians. By Paul Rockwell, Metro Santa Cruz. Article is adapted from the forthcoming book 10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military, edited by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, published by New Press.

A Marine who recognizes the humanity of the people whose country is under occupation makes an ineffective killer. Repelled by the indiscriminate carnage, the visible suffering of the Iraqi people, who only deserved to be left alone by outside powers, Jimmy repudiated the war. He refused to participate in apparent war crimes. He defied authority, and his commander called him a coward and put him under a “kind of house arrest.” Jimmy, a real fighter, eventually won his honorable discharge.