Anti war, anti military, anti governement, evironmental causes, etc. are a natural form of self expression for young adults.
The same as a teenager likes to rebel against their parents for "more freedom", so do very young adults like to rebel against the system.
For the most part, those people will grow to realise that their parents, and government had their best interests at heart all along.
Most will come to have a symbiotic relationship with the system, as it is the very rare person whos success reaches such a level that they could exist totally independent of financial institutions, insurance agencies, medical plans, etc.
Most of us rely on these safety nets heavily for our entire lives, and without responsible government agencies to regulate them (anarchy) we would be back to the feudal age. (Nobility [the few] vs the Serfs [the many])
The military is an essential part of a governments ability to maintain control of a coutry. It is the first and most important tool used in making changes to other regions of our world, where people are being oppressed.
The people who hold total control and power in those places do not watch CTV, they don‘t care if some spoiled western kids are interested in talking about peace. The only thing that can sway them is the threat of military retribution, or actully dragging them into war.
We happen to live in a responsible country where our military (today) is most frequently utilised to aid those in need throughout the world.
We should be eternally thankful to our troops and those who support them at all levels for the contributions they have made to this world.
So when people actually say anti military stuff to you here in Canada, it would be my recommendation that you simply ignore them and realise that one day that induvidual will probably grow up and be thankful that some invading force won‘t be tossing them out of their house, raping and killing their loved ones, and then seizing all profitable goods (including food) and then starving us by the hundreds of thousands, and even millions.
Because in the real world, this happens to millions of people.
Realise that their freedom to badmouth our government only exists because those people willing to fight for it do what they do.
There‘s any number of examples of what happens when you decide not to fight against oppression, and none of them are my idea of a good life.
Anyway, I never have anyone bad mouth the military to my face when I talk about joining. I can often tell they‘re thinking negative thoughts, but they can tell that I‘m confident in my choice and that if they try to smart mouth me they will be sorry.
If they do ever say anything it comes out weak, and it‘s usually "but you might have to kill somebody".
I explain that I‘m not religious, killing in the course of duty does not present a moral issue for me, and that since I‘m Canadian it‘s more likely that I will be involved with operations which are designed to prevent killing. Peacekeeping works, no where near the degree we all wish it would, but still, it makes a difference, and we are just at the dawn of the concept. Methods will improve, and so will the results in the long term.
The key is to be confident in yourself and your belief that the military is neccesary. Look people like that in the eye, and let them know without even having to say it that if they turn and bash the miltary after you tell them you enlisted that you will take it as a personal insult. Next work on giving people a look that says "if you personally insult me, I‘m going to make you wish you hadn‘t"
Anyway, if they really won‘t leave you alone, you could remind them that there is a reason why Free Tibet rallys aren‘t held in Tibet.
