Do you think American soldiers are put on too high of a pedestal

[abaris]

Fair enough, but that's the sense of what I'm getting from other folks.  Maybe not "ignored" but certainly put on a lower priority than "doing what needs to be done," whatever that means.

What strikes me as odd and troublesome at the same time is that the more military technology advanced the more civilian casualties are taken in stride.

In WWI civilian casualties were still something extraordinary in most instances. In WWII they were outright targeted, and ever since then they may not be targets, but their casualties are usually much higher than on the frontlines. More than a million in Korea, more than a million in Vietnam and more than 100.000 in Iraq. Apart from the so called collaterals in drone strikes everywhere around the world.