How do you feel about the unquestioning obedience aspect of the whole thing? My father spent over a year as a cadet, and walked away with a lifelong hatred for any kind of intrinsic authority. Granted, this was in the USSR, and he was general-purpose infantry [read: meat-shield], but the idea that somebody can treat you like dirt 'just because' disturbs me. I understand the necessity of discipline, but doesn't it feel strange sometimes? And since we're talking about the British Armed Forces, how do you feel about the fact that a sizeable portion of the Officers got their job due to their ancestry as opposed to their abilities?
I'm toying with the idea of joining the British Armed Forces [I'm Irish, but that shouldn't really be a problem], but these things tend to niggle.