Nadine Forbes

Justified?: Questioning Military Indoctrination Nadine Forbes

Be All That You Can Be! but at what cost?Behind the guarded gates of the U. S. military is an institution riddled with abuse of power. Justified? is a first-person look into military life. It traces a path of shame from civilian to recruit, to the transformation into a soldier; where training deteriorates into injustice; where the recruit has no support and sadly, no voice. This unfamiliar and gut wrenching story is not unique, but rather is the grave reality of how civilians newly entering the military are broken and how soldiers are made. A soldier must defend this country and its interests. A soldier must obey orders without question. A soldier must be able to resist the enemy and survive under the most difficult of conditions. Furthermore, a soldier must never leave a post unguarded or unprotected, and ultimately a soldier must be able to kill, and kill on command. In the military, a fine line is walked daily between intensity of training and torture of recruits; torture as defined by this government as "any act that inflicts severe pain or suffering, physical or mental". But, what does it take to mold the perfect soldier who is obedient, strong, and a killing machine? In order to attain the soldier's primary goals of marksmanship, resiliency and fitness, are beatings, sleep and sensory deprivations, sexual assaults, and humiliating directives all necessary or justifiable? Justified? leads you through real events and real emotions from a female recruit's perspective. It takes the reader back to the underlying reasons of why the author originally became infatuated with a military career; back to her then seemingly unwavering passion. Both author and reader begin negotiating through the physical and even more emotionally painful process of indoctrination. At the end, the question is asked