Soldiers are the government's puppets. Why do people glorify simple men?

[Anonymous]

I honestly feel sorry for soldiers aka government's puppets. They fight for what their superios believe in. They risk their lives while their superiors lean back and smoke their cigars. No self-respecting man becomes a soldier. Men who know they aren't intelligent/worthy enough tend to go to the army/risk their lives. It's kind of sad. Anyway, my question is... why do people glorify those simple men? Do they watch too many ridiculous hollywood hero movies? The government manipulates people into thinking soldiers are heroes and that's the main reason why naive men want to become soldiers. They want to become hollywood movie heroes, but they don't realize they lose their dignity once they sign the army contract. It's pathetic, don't you think? Muhammed Ali is a self-respecting man. They put him to jail cause he refused to serve the country (as a slave). That says it all. A man of strong character... unlike millions of submissive sheep.

Opinions?

[selfishstars]

I understand what you're saying.

I think that people have various reasons for joining the military, but the truth is that there is a lot of propaganda surrounding the military in order to encourage people to join. The positive side of joining the military is played up. You hear about how brave, strong, patriotic, and admirable the people of the military are, how they're serving their country and defending our rights and freedoms. I've even seen military advertisements that make joining the military seem like playing a video game.

I also think that the military "preys" on the poor especially, by offering incentives like having your college education paid for.

You don't get people to sign up for the military by telling them that they might be killed, horribly injured, suffer from PTSD, or about the high rates of suicide, unemployment, homelessness, etc. of veterans. And of course you want to tell people that they'll be serving and protecting their country (rather than that they'll be potentially fighting wars that have more to do with oil and money).

I'm not denying that people in the military are strong and brave (they do things that I would be too terrified to do myself), but I agree that there's a high degree of manipulation.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of intelligent, self-respecting men in the army. Don't get that wrong. However, sometimes I wonder this too. A lot of soldiers are in other countries. Are they really protecting me if they're not here? What are they doing to protect my freedoms?

[ukrainetrain]

We have never asked to be glorified or be called hero's. A lot of us join because we believe in upholding this country. A lot of us join in search of something we can't explain but we all end up finding a family. Now a days we realize that the things our country forces us to fight for are not always right but we fight anyways. Truthfully I'm not fighting for you or your friends I'm fighting so that my brother next to me can come home safely. You call us slaves but who are you? Some guy that only cares about him self. We put this country and our brothers in arms above our own well being and safety. You will never know how that feels like, and you will never have too, our numbers make up less then one percent of this countries population but we handle 100 percent of its wars. What do you think would happen if we all just quit? You would be learning how to speak Korean or Arabic and all this wonderful freedom of speech you are using right now that many of us have died for will get you executed. But hay I'm just a brain washed slave what do I know.

And I know my spelling and grammar skills are lacking that's because I'm not even originally from this country.

[Dutchy]

Seems a rather exaggerated if you ask me (and you did). Little disclaimer, it might be (,probably is,) a lot worse in the US.

It's not the most glorious job in the world but I'll say their job is more useful then a lot of people around (myself included for now). The pay (compared the the level of education you need) is OK and the military guys I know seem to be quite content with their jobs. It's certainly not the heroism they show in the movies (Jarhead was pretty good though ;-p) but you slagging them off as unworthy, stupid and pathetic doesn't go well with me.

[Ugliness]

They glorify simple men because they are the ones who get killed while the wimps in the government sit back and write the rules.

I have to give Dubya credit, he had more guts than I thought he did, showing his face in Iraq.

But that's all I give him credit for.

[Moloch]

Societies have always operated this way.

The intellectuals and strategic masterminds make all the crucial decisions, and the henchmen go off to do their bidding.

I believe everyone has a purpose and plays out the roles that are handed to them. Army folks do all the leg work and muscle that our country needs in order to survive, rationals are there to tell the army what to do. The strong builds, the brain controls.

People in the army are just filling in their roles in society, let them be.