Hey, Does Anyone Else Think We Kinda Respect the Military Too Much Maybe?

[Aristus]

52. Respect is one thing; and a good thing. But I think we have come to fetishize our military.

And that is not good. I was upset and offended by the woman's photograph; she shouldn't have done it, but she shouldn't have been fired because of it, either.

As a highly militaristic imperialist nation, we have come to rely too much on the armed forces, and to misuse them as a tool of diplomacy.

We were much less militaristic before World War II. Winning the war seems to have been the trigger (so to speak) that set us off on the path to militarism. We discovered we could be good at war, and decided to stop being good at anything else. There was enough societal oomph left in us after the war to allow us to accomplish things like The Berlin Airlift, the Salk vaccine, and the moon program. But basically we've decided to stop being a great nation, and simply settle for being a well-armed nation. That's why we've had so many of these destructive, bankrupting, shit-pot little wars all over the world: when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem tends to look like a nail.

And have you noticed? We only ever pick on people we think won't fight back. And then when they do, the Vietnamese, the Lebanese, the Iraqis, etc, we are always so surprised.

So, no; respect is fine. But this fetishization of our Armed Forces needs to end...