A new profile on General Mark Milley delved into his efforts to preside over the military despite his numerous concerns with former President Donald Trump.
I can't find the original comment but I think somebody said once that the real sign of the strength of the US military is that they can set up a Taco Bell anywhere on Earth in 72 hours.
The average teenager has no realization about that stuff. The three main motivators for military service were (and remain) escaping poverty, service tradition, and ideology. And once you've enlisted the only choice is war or prison.
I have a lot more scorn for the adults that let Bush do it then I do for kids who didn't have a chance in hell of realizing what this country does with soldiers and veterans.
The overhead to support one soldier is massive. But if we want to start referring to soldiers as killers, disparage the military, and make people think badly of them, then why spend so much money on it? Or do we just want to entice people to do a job everyone will look down on, blow a bunch of money on something everyone thinks is terrible, and treat those people like shit?