I'm all for acknowledging their service, more to the point, rewarding it. Veteran care is one of the most odious things about the US.
However we also seem to have a romanticized/glorified view of war, and forget that in addition to the harm, both psychological and physical, it does to our own soldiers, but that their job is to kill other people.
Consider that Russian fellow who is alleged to have called an air strike on himself. The overwhelming response I've seen has been in the vein of "oh that's bad ass." "That dude is so American, even if he's Russian", *waves rock-hard freedom boner around*.
He's no less dead for his heroism, his wife is no less heartbroken. His daughter still will grow up without a daddy because we haven't been able to move past killing each other as an acceptable solution to disagreements.
Or Chris Kyle. Yes the man was an accomplished sniper. He 100% killed kids. Was it justifiable? Absolutely. But a kid died because of the circumstances he grew up in, and Kyle happened to get him in the scope. Which is a horrible tragedy.
Point being we, as a culture, take far too little time to really try and understand what exactly war is.
Your last sentence is a tell. War is one of the most studied, explored, dissected, investigated, and written-about topics in the history of literature. SOME people romanticize war...some. Not all. You generalized ALL in your statement and that is simply incorrect. There are millions of Chris Kyles with equally brutal realities. You need look no further than Carlos Hathcock and the bicycle full of AK's. Yes, another dead boy. He also HUNTED "Apache"...the code name for the most brutal sniper/interrogator the VC had...and it was a woman. You seem to be floating in a sea of poop and looking out of the boat and proclaiming your hatred for that one poop. That one poop makes you mad.
All of these things are the nature of mankind. Its unfortunate. Its reckless. Its unapologetic. Its criminal. Its sad. Its not ever going to stop. I don't say this because I like war, I say it because percentages are on my side that wars, struggles and conflicts will continue as long as the human element is top of the food chain. And, because it has never ceased in the history of mankind.
You're cherrypicking current events to support a position that is penalizing the players by hating the game. Given your logic on soldier recognition, cops should be marginalized because crime sucks? Firemen shouldn't be recognized because fires destroy lives and property? This list is endless...those fellas are heros dude. If for no other reason than they understood and volunteered to be called upon to catch bullets with their bodies in defense of their friends, allies and bystanders.
