As patriotic as I am, if I joined the military, I'd still want it to be on my own accord.  The biggest problem facing our war effort isn't the number of troops, it's a failure of leadership, as I'm sure many will agree.  I was actually thinking about joining the air force before college, but decided against it.  I might still do it after college, but that's up in the air.  How much debt I'm in is also going to be a factor.  And no offense to Marines (except the topic starter), but I'd rather be up in the air where it's safer than on the ground where it's a lot easier to be killed.  But then again, as someone once said, a soldier's job isn't to die for his country, it's to make the other guy die for his.  And for the record, I would not participate in any conflict if I didn't feel it was justified.