Interesting assessment. Acknowledging their deeds doesn't constitute worship.
"Heroic courage isn't blind. It is intelligent and strong" - Yu - the 4th Virtue of Bushido
A person can do much worse than to look up to a person who exhibits evidence of selflessness, intelligence, and strength.
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.
