at a crossroads.

I don't know if I should post this in teh rage department or the speakeasy because I'm furious yet in a calm way. if that makes any sense idk.

basicly I'm 18 and I never complain about my life or say FML to others because I know how horrible most people have it , especialy compared to me. but i'm at a serious crossroads that will have ramifications for most likely most my life.

I'm an american israeli living in Israel (parrents moved here years ago, not of my own choosing) and now that I'm 18 the IDF (Israeli defense force,aka the israeli army ) drafts everyone and its mandatory, I oppose joining for SO many reasons and i'll proceed to list them. for one thing, I couldn't care less for this land, this peice of land DISGUSTS me and makes me fill SICK to my stomach, people have been dying and fighting and dragging in countless bystanders for the last 2000+ years for this dam land and its not worth a damn thing.

I don't want to be dragged into this never ending conflict. I'm an atheist for christ sake, I'm the last person who should be fighting for this rotten land. jews , muslims , catholics have been taking turns killing each other for this land for too long.
and the conflict hasn't been about religion for the majority of the time it existed, religion is and was a tool by the powerfull to control peasents. big buisness and the military industrial complex will always see to it that this conflict dosn't end. lobbying left and right to make sure no one does a damn thing. so joining the army won't change anything.

not to mention the endless hypocrisy , you can get out of joining if you say your religious. WAIT WHAT! this seriously makes me rage to no end. has anyone there read leviticus amongst the other horrid things in the old testament. in a large portion of the old testament god instructs the jews to commit countless acts of genocide. aprrently though, religious people are all pacifists and can't join. yet professing to be a pacifist isn't enough because to them a religion not condoning fighting is a valid exuse but if I think for myself and my philosophy prohibits commiting acts of violence then its not valid.

and the fact that in Israel they say that hitler saying he wanted germany to be only made of germans is an invalid point and he's wrong ( I do personaly think what hitler wanted was wrong ) , whilst saying that they want israel to be only made up of jews is valid .

and the palestinian conflict . people here hate them but what they don't understand is they'd act the same. anyone whos locked up in a cage ( no matter the size) will bark,bite and attack back. all israel does is make them more radical by stopping them from modernizing and replacing their quran with ipods. I'd rather have dumb consumers then dumb fanatics with ak47's.

and they also make LAWS ! based on scripture. it's horrible. they've been considering weather or not they can just kill ALL the palestinians based souly on a passage and how they interpret it.


I want nothing to do with an EXTREMLEY RELIGIOUS , Right wing country that oppresses another group of people.

not to mention israel denys the armenian genocide.

and besides. I won't let anyone cut my hair, i've been growing it and taking care of it ( painstakingly ) for 3 years now and If I cut it now i'll have to be in my late 20's before my hair will look like sephiroth's ( yes you heard me, thats how I want my hair to look )

people also use the us or them arguement alot and its just not valid. I'm so pissed.

I've worked for what I have and I don't want to be delayed in life 3 of my most important years for nothing and a horrible paycheck that dosn't even get to like 100$ a month , I don't want to risk my life for such blatent bs and be a pawn of my political and economic enemies.

I've planned what I've been going to do with my life since I can remember. and the plan hasn't changed much.

be a writer > get my story published ( working on it for 10 years now . ) ( thats my 1 selfish dream ) then > get into politics and try to get into public office in the u.s and prolly be assasinated at one point or another for not being a sell out and pointing out in detail all the sell outs and whats truely ruining the world .

so yeah. now I don't know what the hell to do. theres no way in hell I'd profess to being religious, I just won't do that. I'd rather die standing then live on my knees.

I might be overly righteous or whatever but I won't bend or break to their will or lie to get out of the army. but I cannot see another way out .

Leave the country and get to Europe?

South Korea has compulsory military service where you have to serve two years after you graduate high school. You can choose to suspend it, but then you will have to serve in the middle of college or after you finish your college education. If you don't want to fight, then you should come over to America and become a legal citizen before they find you and start harassing you with mandatory papers of service. My father came to the United States from Africa (from South Korea) and wasn't considered a legal citizen. He was under a special work-study provision and didn't bother to apply for full citizenship until he received letters from the Korean military telling him that he had to come back and serve in the army. My dad barely knew my mother at the time and the only reason they knew each other was because their parents tried to persuade them into an arranged marriage. My parents didn't want to move that fast until my dad realized that he was going to get drafted back to his own country. My dad told my mom the situation. She felt bad for my dad and decided to marry him. This resulted in one of the most disgruntled relationships I have witnessed and experienced.

well you may have a shot in the U.S but I wouldn't go to Europe if I was Israeli...like ever. I've done a couple of papers on Israel for my IR class and my last one was about a "War of Perceptions." basically support for Israel in Europe is dismal at best and hostile at worse. If you were to try and emigrate to another country you must consider that it can take years and a lot of frustration to stay for a while let alone get naturalized. My brother has lived in the U.S since he was 15 and 7 years later he is finally a citizen. You do have some options though but really it comes down to how daring you really are. Considering you're only 18 try and go for secondary school like a community/junior college. From an associates/equivalent degreetry for english teaching programs like JET. That would enable you to live in a country for a couple of years and delay mostly everything. If you have patience go through the normal post-schooling route and try for international studies. there are many ways to go about this but you should get more familiar with living abroad.

On another note looking at this situation I find it slightly ironic that the super orthodox jews are exempt from military service

well you may have a shot in the U.S but I wouldn't go to Europe if I was Israeli...like ever. I've done a couple of papers on Israel for my IR class and my last one was about a "War of Perceptions." basically support for Israel in Europe is dismal at best and hostile at worse. If you were to try and emigrate to another country you must consider that it can take years and a lot of frustration to stay for a while let alone get naturalized. My brother has lived in the U.S since he was 15 and 7 years later he is finally a citizen. You do have some options though but really it comes down to how daring you really are. Considering you're only 18 try and go for secondary school like a community/junior college. From an associates/equivalent degreetry for english teaching programs like JET. That would enable you to live in a country for a couple of years and delay mostly everything. If you have patience go through the normal post-schooling route and try for international studies. there are many ways to go about this but you should get more familiar with living abroad.

On another note looking at this situation I find it slightly ironic that the super orthodox jews are exempt from military service

I guess I did'nt really state it clearly in the first post that I have dual citizenship. I was born and raised in L.A and my parrents were born and raised in israel and then moved back here 7 years ago.

I could easily be self sustaining in the u.s just formatting peoples pc's , hacking psp's and 360's , selling burnt games and things of that nature. my friend formats pc's at his dorm for 200$ a pop. he makes like 3000/month from it so thats more then enough to get me through college in the states alone if the college has a dorm with cheap rent.

I guess I did'nt really state it clearly in the first post that I have dual citizenship. I was born and raised in L.A and my parrents were born and raised in israel and then moved back here 7 years ago.

I could easily be self sustaining in the u.s just formatting peoples pc's , hacking psp's and 360's , selling burnt games and things of that nature. my friend formats pc's at his dorm for 200$ a pop. he makes like 3000/month from it so thats more then enough to get me through college in the states alone if the college has a dorm with cheap rent.

No one can afford college. Just take loans like everyone else and get private loans if your federal loans don't cover all your tuition. The money you make from your "job" can pay off any high interest loans and the rest will get paid over time by the five-figure job you hopefully get after you graduate. Hence, red rover, red rover, send Adrmaelech over.

[color="#000080"] Well, this clearly sucks man. I don't really know what to say. Your situation is so delicate that my position will be worthless even if you considerate it.

Living in Israel must be tough as f'uck, so I'd recommend you to try and get a scholarship at the States and get the f'uck outta there. Middle east is such a convoluted area that you should flee and never come back anymore.

That's what I get from the news though. [/color]

[color="#000080"] Well, this clearly sucks man. I don't really know what to say. Your situation is so delicate that my position will be worthless even if you considerate it.

Living in Israel must be tough as f'uck, so I'd recommend you to try and get a scholarship at the States and get the f'uck outta there. Middle east is such a convoluted area that you should flee and never come back anymore.

That's what I get from the news though. [/color]

living in israel isn't SO different from the u.s, theres just some areas its best not to go if you don't want to get shot, theres no slurpies or gamers , people are all racists, majority is religious and inorder to get employed in 90% of places you must have served in the army. and some other things. my main problem is the language. whilst I can speak hebrew fluently I cannot express myself like I do in english or to the same degree and I barley read/write hebrew with 10 tons of mistakes.

and also to Swerve I don't have good grades due to my lack of understanding of their language and I got a short/long term memory problem . I'm not planning to go to an extremely expensive college, maybe somthing that costs in the area of $10k/year , if its around that then making around $3000 a month I should be able to get along just fine in a dorm with cheap rent.

anyways. the problem is getting out of the army. I can't really go to the states without a dollar in my pocket. i'd need to get accepted to a college first then do the math and see If I can sustain myself there.