RE: Do you think American soldiers are put on too high of a pedestal
January 22, 2017 at 10:00 am
(This post was last modified: January 22, 2017 at 10:24 am by Anomalocaris.)
(January 22, 2017 at 9:45 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote:(January 22, 2017 at 8:40 am)abaris Wrote: Even more so since the last time American soldiers did American citizens any service was in 1945 or thereabouts.
Nothing?
Certainly not nothing, despite being quite a mixed bag. However, on the balance the US military did carry out a largely successful defense of such national interest as undoubtedly improved the income and standard of living of US citizens as well as much of the population of the whole world from 1945-2001. It did this by backing the advocacy of and securing a relatively stable, predictable and safe world in which the liberal system of industry, trade and commerce across most of the entire world, the very system that trump is seeking to destroy, facilitated the fastest 50 year average growth rate in average standard of living across the whole world in all human history. This is a contribution by the US military that is easily overlooked, especially since it does appear to require taking bullets or getting blown up, and does not quite fit the jingoist image of the military's role, but can not be minimized.
The downfall of American military's ability to continue to contribute in the meaningful manner largely stemmed of the grasping, overreaching, unilateralist ethos characterized by the 2001 Iraq war and by the small minded cynical jingoism of trump.
