To US Veterans...

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Like any situation where there's a vast disparity in power between the guy holding the gun and the people they're holding it around, shit can go pear shaped fast.  Obviously times have changed, but..today, the military roe are stricter than the environment under which domestic police forces operate - so, depending on where and when (and with whom) a person has interacted, they may have a very different view of soldiers and service.  

It also doesn't help that it's a shit job that doesn't usually appeal to the kinds of people we want doing it, who have more opportunities compared to the kinds of people we don't...for whom it holds even greater appeal.

To an extent, being conditioned to fall into the "jack booted thug" role is a practical requirement of combat arms, however distasteful it may be.  Sympathy for the devil here, though, since..when shit has -really- gone pear shaped and despite our normal reservations....we very much appreciate seeing our jack booted thugs cresting the ridge line.  It only takes an instant to go from smiling distributor of humanitarian relief to killer, or dead.  Those are the three states of affairs that anyone who volunteers for that sort of duty finds themselves in.  If nothing else, we might appreciate that those people choose to do and place themselves in that position in our stead.  That someone is doing it.

*shrug*  You can only see soldiers shoot civilians with rubber bullets so many times before you sour on the whole thing.  I happily admit that my assessment of military organizations is highly biased, almost certainly unfair, and pretty fucking narrow-minded.

Kudos, though, to the great majority of soldiers who don't shoot grannies with rubber bullets or club 12 year olds with rifle butts or use live fire on spectators at a parade or loot the homes of civilians or collude with terrorists.  Hat's off to you.

Boru