If all else fails, here is an important reason to keep young men out of the military that might persuade them. In an article titled “A Book the Military Won’t Want You to Read,” Kelley B. Vlahos discusses a new book, They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America’s Wars: The Untold Story, by Ann Jones. Says the article: “The medical staff Jones spoke with at Bagram were on their third or fourth tour, and bone tired, their faith terribly shaken from seeing what came to be known as ‘dismounted complex blast injuries’ which we know increased in 2010 and 2011, tearing into soldiers’ extremities and leaving them unable to have children, much less sex, for their rest of their lives.” And here is a quote from the book: “I ask how (the emergency room nurse) would describe the typical case she sees in the ER. She replies, ‘Amputees up to the waist. No arms. No legs. No genitals. Age 21 or 22. We cry.'” The author also told Antiwar.com about “a ‘darkly handsome boy,’ he lost one leg below the knee and another too high up to ever wear a prosthetic leg. According to the doctor, he lost one testicle, too, and part of the penis and urethra.”

Young men, is anything about the military worth losing your manhood? Some say that joining the military will make a man out of you. I say that it may take your manhood from you.

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