In Reply to: Re: I guess when he had the Jerusalem cross tatooed on his chest posted by confused442 on December 03, 2024 at 11:42:43
we should not romanticize military service as some kind of valor in and of itself. A lot of seriously f*cked up people sign up to serve in the military and become even more damaged goods when they come out. There was a book published a while back by someone whose name escapes me at the moment, who sees a pattern in the rise of right wing militia movements in America roughly about 5 years after we send the military somewhere out there into the world.
I can see how a military person can value someone volunteering to serve 3 tours in the military, but I can't see that as an automatic positive before I know why they did so. This is something that civilians tend to do a lot, a trend that I noticed taking over during the Gulf War, when the sins of "spitting on servicemen" in the 60s were being exorcised collectively. The thing is, it didn't stop there. It became the starting point for the over-romanticization of the military in this country.
I'd rather we stop that.