This is interesting to read and on Susan's Facebook page (and blogsite) there are a number of vehement reactions to what this woman said.Now, personally, this has a touch of unreality to it and IMHO I suspect it is right-wing baiting. This obviously touches a nerve with many people on the further right of the US. The so called, Patriots, a sector of American society who believe deeply in truth, justice, and the American Way. Many are what they say and are unbelievably naive. Many are sociopaths and end up in the police or the military and many just are sitting on the fence post pissed off at the world.
Let's then play Devil's Advocate and assume that this woman's post is real and that it represents a viewpoint held by many Americans. If this is the case, then there is a big disconnect from those serving (or who have served) and the rest of the population. Less than 10% (24.6 million veterans) of Americans have ever served in the military. Currently only 1% of the US population are on active duty. She is correct though in that of the total military force a relative few typically have seen action, that is up until the second Iraq conflict. Now everyone in the Theater of Operations is at significant risk and there are no real or effective safe zones.
Everyone serving in the US military since 1975 has been a volunteer and can be rationally viewed as mercenaries, or "professional" soldiers so there is another disconnect from the rest of society. She is right though that a vast majority joined the US military to get out of whatever horrible circumstances they were living in or to get a large enlistment bonus. Not all, but many are also true patriots, in the right wing sense of the word. However, most Americans now don't trust the government, and many believe it is a bona fide police state so by extension the military are government actors acting against Americans. She is also right we are fighting zero legally declared wars. The War on Terrorism is not a legally declared war. In fact we have committed so many atrocities against the Geneva Convention we should realistically be held accountable in the International War Crimes Tribunal but that cannot happen as the US has never signed or ratified that particular treaty. But, we do have people firing at and receiving fire from "enemy" combatants in at least 7 countries today.
Most Americans are super pissed that we keep spending trillions on extremely expensive military hardware (12 new aircraft carriers, $1 Trillion for F-35 [defective] fighters, 35 (down from 55) new useless and defective Littoral Combat Ships, 2,400 new M1 tanks the Army has repeatedly stated it doesn't want or need, and we have over 1,700 bases overseas. Many are small but just this number indicates the extent of the American aggression around the world.
This is all while many Americans have seen their incomes and savings disappear. Anyway, it is a big PR problem and getting worse. I used to think my Tricare Overseas (Military Retiree Medical plan) was the worst possible health care in America. Now, since Obamacare, I can see it is among the best.
So, the problems regarding political and social views of Americans have come full circle back to the Vietnam days when the military was hated. How many Congressman's kids are in the service these days and how many people in government have ever served? This is a problem already extant in Europe where people serving in the military are regarded as inferior. This is particularly true in Russia and the former Communist block countries. Because America is following the same path to destruction that the Soviet Union went down in the late 80's and early 90's this is going to become an even larger problem. I was actually denied an interview for a professorship position at our local University here in Hungary because I had served in the military. Not just the American military but any military. That is how low people respect the military here and it is coming to America as well.
I remember those days in the early 70's getting cursed at, bottles thrown at me, and spit on when traveling in uniform. The same but worse happened in Europe where I was frequently attacked by people on the street, particularly in Sweden. So, here we go again. The difference now is I was drafted back then and had no choice except to desert and move to Canada. If I had known Carter would grant amnesty to all those that did that I would have made different choices. But, instead I went on to serve my country for 40 years.
However, "The times they are a changin". If we have an actual revolt in America, which is becoming more and more likely as the lies this and previous administrations come to light, we may find ourselves with a big problem. Most enlisted come from the lower half of the socioeconomic class of Americans. This, and always has been, a problem of minority misrepresentation among the combat MOS such as Infantry. It was true during Vietnam and is still true today. The difference is we have a more disaffected group of soldiers many who now have as much as 12 combat tours. Most of them lost their starry eyed view of fighting for freedom BS during the first tour. Instead they fight for their brothers in arms. It is a survival mechanism and is always how it breaks down in combat. You stop caring about the bigger picture and start caring about yourself and the guys next to you. It is hairy and there isn't a moments peace during the entire deployment where you feel safe or secure. Then you come home to at best an uncaring population who are oblivious to your struggles of survival much less the actual big picture of America fighting for National Security. We all know this is total BS by now. So, we are really fighting for those guys above the top 1% and their interests.
Anyway, if it breaks down to revolution in America I don't think the soldiers in the combat arms are going to support the top 1% anymore but instead will fight for their families. There is absolutely zero loyalty to the Generals commanding and many soldiers have no clue who they are anyway. This is the danger of have a military designed to prevent military coups. The US military deliberately sends soldiers to different command with each 2-3 year re-assignment and in a typical 20 year career you won't go to the same place twice. The soldiers only have loyalty to each other and their own families and social class. This becomes worse when you see the Commander in Chief breaking laws without regard to any consequences and when you see Congressmen becoming wealthy through their power and positions while you earn peanuts fighting for them and their plutocracy.
Many veterans felt more than a little naive when they learned how the government betrayed them later. The granting of amnesty, denial of Veteran's services etc. has treated the Vietnam era vets the worst in American history. But, I lost my rose colored glasses a long time ago. I realized pretty quickly after Vietnam when we got into other fun places and the list is very long (I lost count at 20 conflicts since 1963), and realized none, absolutely zero had anything to do with National Security or even the better interests of the US. People in America realize this and aren't all that mesmerized by the patriotic zeal which many in the military seems to equate to expectations of a grateful nation for their service "protecting" them.
What Americans are now seeing is that our government is the largest threat to American society and that the military is included in this, particularly now that Posse Comitatus has been thrown out completely by Obama and our military (NSA is part of the DoD) is actively spying and targeting American citizens. They further are realizing that all of this has nothing to do with protecting Americans and everything to do with making rich people richer. They also see rampant and uncontrolled slaughter of innocent people in countries we aren't at war with fighting enemies which apparently under the right circumstances we assist by supplying weapons and training. Never forget Osama Bin Laden was trained and supported by the US when it was good for us. The same for Al Qaeda in Libya and now in Syria. None of it makes any sense and the soldiers are now part of the feared part of our government.
It is far worse now than it was during Vietnam. At least then the government was relatively benevolent. Nixon could only have prayed to have available to him what Obama has today. If anyone doesn't believe this government is actively using all of this surveillance to "motivate" people such as Congressmen, Generals, Judges, whomever to further their causes, then they better wake up and take a hard look. On top of this, the country is not only bankrupt but it is getting worse and we still continue fighting these lost causes at enormous expense. Of course Americans dislike the military, and the police, and anyone else who is now actively persecuting American citizens pr prosecuting these inane wars in lands far from home fighting for things that have nothing to do with us.
Vietnam, for whatever reason, and I think it was really about oil and not global containment (my in-laws are in the Russian oil business and have oil exploration contracts there) was in a different geopolitical era. I didn't have the pleasure of experiencing Vietnam being in Germany until the war ended but I had plenty of comrades who had just returned and these were some seriously burnt out guys, most strung out on drugs.
Even the climate in the military has changed since back then. Back then if you were a draftee you were held in high regard and the enemy were "lifers". When I re-enlisted I became "one of them" which got worse when I made SSG and later SFC. By the time I was commissioned in my 10th year it had changed again dramatically and became a "professional" military. Now even alcohol use (any) is frowned on which is bizarre to me. There is a reason we are awarded Good Conduct Medals but that has become irrelevant given the intolerance in the military now. Under Reagan we won back some of the respect from Americans we had lost. This was enhanced in the first Gulf War although most people in retrospect wonder what that was really all about. Even after 9/11 there was a strong surge of patriotism but all of that has been pissed away since with these never ending useless conflicts. Why are we so strongly supporting a despot in Yemen and trying to topple a democratically elected and popular president in Syria to the point of obfuscating the truth about the chemical weapons "our" rebels used supplied by Saudi Arabia? Our foreign policy is a shambles and we are now seen overwhelmingly by every country in the world as the greatest threat to world peace. We have been actively supporting the Chechen "freedom fighters", we have been supporting Prince Bandar "Bush" Sultan who has threatened to destroy the Olympics in Sochi. We provided Al Qaeda arms and materials to overthrow Khadaffi and then were shocked when these same people killed our ambassador but then did nothing about it.
We look schizophrenic to the world and even to our own people who now will believe anything is possible. Just look at the craziness by police in the US now. It is extremely dangerous to have any encounter with them and citizens cannot distinguish between the police and the military. Obama forcing the repeated inclusion of the Detention without warrant or due process in the NDAA has got people scared. Having Constitution free zones of 200 miles from any border is another. Arresting people for wearing Google Glass by ICE agents is bizarre. Sending SWAT teams out to the wilds of Alaska to small mining operations for EPA inspections is another. Same for using SWAT teams to service summons. It really looks like it is all out of control now and getting worse. Spying on everything we do is another nutty thing to be doing and it is way out of control. I hate watching it happen and realizing we are already well down the path to the collapse of our nation which I love and it is all our fault.
Looking back at the world when we had the West against the Soviet threat is interesting. Being married to a former Soviet nuclear scientist (who later became a US scientist) gives on a unique perspective. She left the Soviet Union to come to America only to find that there really is no more freedom in the US than there was in Russia. It is just a different kind of slavery driven by ever increasing debt. Very few Americans are actually free to do anything they want. Living in a former Communist country is another. I have learned that the "evil empire" was never actually evil and fundamentally provided for its citizens well and were in constant fear of US incursion. They never threatened any attack and certainly didn't surround the US with nuclear missiles like the US did to Russia. They tried once and Kennedy went nuts and almost destroyed the planet over it. Here in Hungary many people (perhaps the majority) are regretting the collapse of the Soviet economic trade zone as they were far better off under communism. A few of the 1% here have gotten very rich at the expense of everyone else. I have found this same undercurrent of thinking in Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech republic, and Bosinia. Many Russians feel similarly but are more conflicted as they really hated living under the latter years of the Soviet Union and many remember relatives killed during Stalin's purges in the 30's and 40's. So, Putin is tolerated as they are just tired of conflict. Things are basically okay, not great but okay enough, so they don't complain much.
So, this discussion can permit us to examine exactly where the US is with regards to different perspectives. The soldiers who have served since 1991 have been lead to believe they were fighting for National Security and many are having serious problems adapting to the ever changing realities of the US and it's global hegemony and foreign aggressions. Many really believe they are fighting and protecting Americans from some vague but now unidentifiable threat. So, there are some serious psychological implications when reality sets in for these unfortunate soldiers and veterans.
