Recently I read an article that really put one of the unquestioned paradigms in our society in the spotlight. It is a soldier's account of the glorification of war and soldiers as heros and the reality of the situation. Please read the article in full before posting on this topic.
https://www.mediumdifficulty.com/2012...-place-in-war/
This makes me feel blunt in saying I have always questioned the heroism of soldiers in my head but never really felt comfortable saying it out loud due to how enforced an idea it is in society. I'm not saying that they are evil but the reality of war is that it is cruel and brutal. Our society makes it a point to glorify war and hide the dark reality behind it.
Having a strong military is necessary and having sociopaths willing to fight and die is necessary but the military industrial complex is not necessary and has created so much needless war and bloodshed that society shouldn't see the people who volunteer to serve in the same way as the people who defended freedom and fought the Nazi's in WWII. The occupation of Afghanistan has long overstayed its welcome and the occupation of Iraq was flat out unnecessary. The reason the United States is still involved in those wars is because they make the military industrial complex a boatload of money.
Now if we look towards the future there are some encouraging more pointless bloodshed and advocating war with Iran looking to spark another quagmire where soldiers are stuck babysitting a rebuilding country.
Getting back to the topic of soldiers, I wonder how accurate W's depiction of the military really is? I think soldiers have to disconnect themselves from reality in order to do their job but how many of them are fucked up killers?