January 22, 2010 1:00pm by swood | 
Don’t get me completely wrong, I admire people in uniform and maintain a state of perpetual jealousy towards them with regards to the things they get to do. However, today’s “wars” are not like the wars of the past. They are not wars of honor and sacrifice.
In WWI and WWI you had average people thrust into conflict with little training or preparation. You had carpenters fighting next to plumbers next to lawyers. They didn’t want to be there, but they knew they had to be there. In these circumstances, it seems perfectly reasonable and honorable to “do our bit at home” to support the people reluctantly fighting overseas.
It’s just not like that today. I’m actually embarrassed when people and organizations ask me to “support the troops”. Huh? They want to be there! We maintain an all volunteer army that is made up of, from what I have been able to tell, young guys who want to play with expensive equipment and blow stuff up. These guys are not the best and the brightest, and they are not all inherently heroes for diving into conflict.
Certainly, specific instances of heroism and bravery will arise and should be recognized. But calling a volunteer soldier a hero simply because they sign up to be paid to fight? That’s too ridiculous for me. And why should I feel obligated to send them socks and other supplies? They CHOSE to be there, and I’m already supplying them with socks through taxes.
Witness the heroes at work, empowered to play by an unchecked freedom provided to them away from the homeland.
Soldiers Blow Up Tanker With Grenades – Watch more Funny Videos
Why is it that the most primal, basic, macho-speak results in full on Ebonics no matter what the skin color?
Blowing stuff up is fun, dude. I wonder how much 9 sticks of C4 costs?
I’m bored, let’s waste some money and do things I wouldn’t be allowed to do back home.
Perhaps if video from the battlefield was available from WWII, I’d see the same sort of behavior, but somehow I doubt it.
And for the sake of balance, here’s snippet of the tough side of the job… and also the very thing that pumps up all the Army/Marine fan boys.
Well, there’s a few things I’d like to point out, but I’ll start by saying, we disagree (shocker, I know!).
Firstly, a bit of a technicality – although our media/politicians tell us we’re “at war”, we’re not. There is no state of declared war between us and any country, this was different than in WWII. We’re actually in occupation of two countries, and fighting insurgencies. The wars were over very quickly. Any military analyst will tell you there is a big difference between war and occupation. Most of everything we know about WW II was war.
I think your statement
“However, today’s “wars” are not like the wars of the past.” is WAY more true than you realize. Up until relatively recently, war was fought by thugs, and commanded by societies elites. The rewards were the spoils of war – Rape and Murder of civilian populations followed closely, of course.
As a policy, we don’t subscribe to that any more, and thus the expectations of our Soldiers have raised. We need them to kill and be violent, and yet respect the societal standards we have set. That’s a tough mix! So, if that can be accomplished by destroying some inanimate objects, followed by some chest thumping, then, personally, I’m cool with that.
The idea that military personnel “want” to be there is a bit of a generalization. I don’t know many people who “want” to get shot at, although, those people certainly exist. For many, the military is an opportunity to get a college education they wouldn’t otherwise get a shot at. It’s also an opportunity to serve the country, and there are those that see that as a duty rather than a right.
Soldiers may be getting “paid” to be in a war zone, but they’re not getting paid very much! America is a VERY comfortable country to live in, and those that serve in the military choose to make themselves uncomfortable.
What we do agree on, I think, is the idea that “support the troops” goes WAY beyond a throw away slogan that masks as Patriotism. REAL support would be making sure the troops didn’t have to scrape for socks and calling cards in the first place, and had elite social services waiting for them when they returned to help with PTSD, housing, re-integrating into non-combat social settings, etc – pay more taxes to cover this, if needs be. Heck, how about just signing up for a tour, so we don’t need to extend those that are already active?