View Single Post
Old 01-10-2010, 10:17 PM   #1 (permalink)
Jinn
Lover - Protector - Teacher
 
Jinn's Avatar
 
Location: Seattle, WA
How much respect do military members deserve?

I'm really struggling personally giving respect, in any sense of the word, to members of the military. Don't get me wrong, in an abstract sense I respect someone willing to put their lives on the line to truly defend America.

But I can't seem to escape this feeling lately that the military mostly recruits the uneducated or unmotivated to do our "dirty work", ultimately brainwashing them (even in the guise of unit cohesion) into fierce loyalty, unquestioning faith in authority, and the the fact that the US is always right. And interestingly enough, this tends to become conservative political beliefs too..

I know that my experience with military members is probably not indicative of the whole, and the former and current military on TFP seem to largely defy the stereotype. I just have a lot of miltary friends and live in a hugely military city and they all seem to fit the mold.

Recently I met a friend of a friend who was a former Stryker unit leader in the Army, and he made an offhand joke about how a bunch of dead "Hadjis" (Arabs) was a "beautiful" thing. I told him I thought that was inappropriate to say, whether it was a joke or not. He said I couldn't possibly understand as a civilian, and that I shouldn't really question him because he had done far more for the US than I had. He asked me why I was such a pussy, and wanted to know if I was one of those "Obamists" who want to apologize for America.

When I told my friend about it, he echoed the sentiment, and told me I shouldn't question his military friends because I couldn't ever compare to the kind of men they were. My ego was naturally hackled by that attack on my "manliness" and I probably overreacted and told him I was not interested in being friends with someone who would hide behind their uniform or defend those who did simply because they had served. I think I lost a high school friend as a result.

Unfortunately these kinds of conversations are not unique for me and I have been told over and over again that I really have no business talking since I haven't served in the military and because they are out there risking their lives to defend my ability to even make the "cowardly intellectual hippie criticisms."

Should I have let him slide since he was in the military? Am I really less of a man for not serving? Are there some things it is OK for them to do or say since they (admittedly) have probably seen things I will hopefully never see?

I really don't know, because I don't want to disrespect them but I also hate the idea that I can't criticize or even speak because they are such better patriots than I.

How much deference do YOU give members of the military? How much respect do you initially give them?
__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Last edited by Jinn; 01-10-2010 at 10:21 PM..
Jinn is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360